


Tell Me on a Sunday

by Mellowyellowdiamonds



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU, Alternative Universe - No Island, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Olicity freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-09-13 16:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9133015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellowyellowdiamonds/pseuds/Mellowyellowdiamonds
Summary: No good deed goes unpunished. Felicity gets more than she bargains for when she rescues Star City playboy Oliver Queen from a kidnapping one night. Pesky Oliver takes a shine to her and when it becomes obvious that she's unable to shake him off, Felicity decides to take up the offer of a life time from Robert Queen.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Halloo!!!
> 
> Was pottering around my house, enjoying the relaxing new year break when this plot bunny attacked me out of nowhere so I drafted it down and wrote the first chapter today.
> 
> Once again it is completely and utterly AU because I can't handle the real show right now! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

“Frack frack frack frack frack,” Felicity muttered to herself as she dodged a hail of bullets, which had miraculously missed her somehow. Running while being shot at was never fun. Running while being shot at, whilst also lugging a huge suitcase full of triad drugs, with her face sweating heavily behind a mask was a nightmare. If she wasn’t in such a blind panic and wasn’t being gunned down by three armed triad members, she might have taken a moment to attribute the fact that she wasn’t yet looking like a human sieve to all the hard work and training she had put in with John. She might have even felt a bit proud of herself. 

Felicity ducked behind a storage container just as three shots rang, the bullets ricocheting off the metal, making a ghastly loud clanging noise that hurt her ears. If she somehow got out of this alive, she would still probably end up stone deaf unless she did something quick smart. 

Felicity took few breaths and focused on her surroundings. Just three metres from where she was hidden she could see what she thought was the shadow of a foot. Without hesitating Felicity reached into her pocket and grabbed one of the rubber balls she frequently kept on her body and tossed it out into the middle of the venue. A hail of bullets sprayed the area where she had tossed her ball, as each armed triad member revealed their position. 

Seizing her opportunity Felicity momentarily ducked out of her hiding spot and fired her tranquilizer gun with pin point accuracy at each member, making them drop one by one. 

Felicity gave a small fist pump as she spoke into her comms, “Spartan, Spartan are you there? How are things at your end? My targets have been neutralized. I’ll need your help securing them if you’re done dealing with your batch of criminals.”

“Mine are all down for the count and chained up ready for Star City Police to deal with. Heading over to you Overwatch,” came John’s response. “And well done Overwatch. All those sessions at the shooting range have paid off I see.”

Felicity’s face broke out into a huge grin upon hearing his words. John was very fond of her that much she was sure of, but he never offered faint praise so she knew that she had kicked ass today. Placing the heavy suitcase of drugs down Felicity turned her attention to three unconscious bodies strewn on the ground, pondering whether she should wait for John or start dragging them into a pile.

Suddenly she thought she heard a sound from the container she had hidden behind earlier. It sounded like a cross between a snore and a snort of some kind. Gun in hand Felicity cautiously approached the container. The door was bolted but she could hear the noise louder now. It appeared to be the sound of human snoring. Whoever it was must be a prisoner of the triad. Felicity tried to push the door of the container open. Of course it was locked. Sighing she reached up for a hairpin and proceeded to make quick work of the lock. Her jaw dropped at the sight that greeted her.

Lying in a disheveled pile in the corner of the container was non other than Star City play boy Oliver Queen, good for nothing son of Robert and Moira Queen, heir to the Queen fortune. She recognized him from his disarmingly handsome face, trademark stubble and close-cropped haircut. Felicity blinked a few times to make sure that her eyes were not deceiving her. He appeared to be unharmed despite looking a little worse for wear. He had a gag in his mouth and Felicity assumed that his deep state of slumber was due to being drugged. Really this day couldn’t get any worse. She couldn’t just enjoy their victory of besting the triad without now having to deal with Oliver Queen who obviously had been kidnapped. Felicity found herself sighing again at the inconvenience of it all. Wasn’t Oliver Queen supposed to be on some sex getaway with Sara Lance. 

The last time Felicity had a night off, she had fallen asleep to TMZ and could have sworn she saw a sensational segment where it was reported that his (now ex) fiancé Laurel Lance had hurled a set of shot glasses at him upon stumbling on Oliver fooling around with her sister Sara. According to TMZ the engagement had ended in a spectacular fashion and Oliver had boarded a jet with Sara and taken off. Why he was in this storage container, adding to Felicity’s problems she did not know.

Shaking her head, Felicity approached the giant snoring buffoon and proceeded to drag him out by the legs. God he was heavy! This was certainly a case of no good deed goes unpunished. She had better not throw her back while dragging him around. She giggled to herself as she wondered if she could bill the Queen family for any medical bills incurred from injuries suffered as a result of rescuing their idiot son. She wondered if they even knew said idiot son had been kidnapped. 

She managed to haul him out of the container when John arrived.

“Is that who I think it is?” John asked in an incredulous tone.

“Yup!” Felicity replied. “Seems like we have run into yet another complication tonight. What should we do with him? I haven’t heard anything about him going missing at all. I could hack into his parent’s phones to see if they have received any ransom demands but the tranquillisers are going to wear out soon and I rather our villains get picked up quickly by the police. I don’t want to stand around here in plain sight for much longer.”

“We leave him for the police to find. I’ll be around to make sure SCPD picks up our presents from tonight. I’ll also keep an eye on him and make sure he gets taken home safely by law enforcement,” John responded calmly, speaking as he worked methodically to handcuff the three unconscious triad members together before chaining them to the heavy storage container. John was always cool as a cucumber under pressure. 

“I’m not entirely comfortable with that. What if they think he’s got something to do with the drugs? Can we just do a drop outside Queen Manor and alert his parents?” Felicity pondered. Oliver Queen may be a douchebag but a criminal he was not and she wasn’t comfortable with leaving him to be found with a bunch of triad members and a suitcases full of drugs. 

“You drop him outside, shoot any security with the tranquillisers if you need to. Be careful I don’t want you getting caught. I’d rather we not get embroiled with these people,” John warned, looking slightly worried.

“We’ve been shot at all night by the triad and you’re worried about a few poncey Queens,” Felicity chuckled. She stopped at once as she saw the tension in John’s face. Even behind his mask she could tell he had suddenly become antsy about something.

“Drop him off and we’ll talk tonight Felicity.” His tone was serious and he had lapsed into calling her by her name, something he had never done while they were out in the field. 

“Spartan are you ok? What’s wrong?”

“Not the time or the place Felicity. Meet me at our usual spot and we’ll talk later I promise,” John answered gravely. 

Felicity wanted to protest but she knew better than to stand there and argue with her partner in the middle of an abandoned warehouse with unconscious crooks around them. She nodded obediently and helped John haul the still unconscious Oliver Queen into the van. 

***

The drive to Queen Manor was dark and bendy, taking almost an hour. Felicity yawned as she pulled up across the road from the stately manor. Prior to driving off, Felicity had hacked into the Queen’s security cameras and learned that fortunately for her, security was stationed inside the property not outside the front gate. 

Felicity got out of the van and opened the back door to retrieve Oliver. A hand suddenly reached out, pulling her mask off her face. Too shocked to scream, Felicity momentarily froze as she stared into Oliver Queen’s cerulean blue eyes. The full moon outside, combined with the automatic lighting, which had switched on when Felicity opened the van door, gave Oliver an unobstructed view of her face. Felicity remained frozen in that moment as her mind ran through a hundred different scenarios of what she should do to get herself out of this mess. 

“Felicity,” he whispered breathlessly, gazing at her in silent wonderment, apparently liking what he saw. “You’re Felicity. I heard the other man call you that. You saved me. You’re beautiful. So beautiful.” He reached out to try and touch her cheek, the move jolting Felicity out of her temporary daze. She reached out and slapped his hand sharply before snatching her mask back from him and jamming it back onto her face.

“OUT!” she ordered in a commanding tone, trying to shove him out of the van. “Get out of the van right now and go home.”

“But how will I see you again?” he whined, making no move to leave the van. “Here let me give you my number. Please call me again so that I can thank you properly. It’s not every day that I get saved by the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

“So if I was butt ugly and saved you that wouldn’t count for anything?” Felicity scowled at him, raising an eyebrow even though it was now hidden under her mask.

“That’s not what I said,” Oliver replied, completely unfazed by her annoyance. “I’d be grateful and would want to thank my rescuer. But I wouldn’t be spellbound like I am with you.” He had the gall to try and touch her hand again. 

“Jesus, you’ve just come back from a kidnapping and you’re hitting on the woman who rescued you? UNBELIEVABLE! GET OUT OF MY VAN! OUT!” Gathering all her strength Felicity hauled him out of the van and pushed him to the kerb. Ignoring his protests she sprinted back to the drivers seat, slammed the door shut and drove off. 

***

“You did really well tonight Felicity,” John smiled at her from across the table. “You’ve come a long way from being the tiny nineteen year old mugging victim I assisted in the Glades.” He stopped and looked at her for a few minutes. 

Felicity sighed and shook her head. “Why do I feel like there is a huge *but* coming up in this pep talk soon. If we were dating John, which we aren’t because you’re probably too old for me, not that you look old, you’re completely swoon worthy but you’re like the brother I never had so no matter how good looking you are the concept of dating you is kinda eww. Anyway my point is this sounds like a break up speech.” 

Felicity stopped talking and popped a curly fry into her mouth, chewing it down to keep herself occupied lest she launch into another inappropriate rant. They were debriefing at Big Belly Burger (with a double cheese burger and curly fries each, extra pickles for Felicity) as they always did after a mission. John’s sister in law Carly owned the place and this ensured that they were always left to discuss any of their illegal activities in peace. 

John let out a small chuckle at her rant but his face quickly tempered into a serious expression. “Not a break up as such Felicity. But we need to talk about you. More importantly your future.”

Felicity let out a huff as soon as she realized where this conversation was headed. It was the age-old argument between herself and John. He thoroughly disapproved of her dead end job at Tech Village and was forever trying to push her into settling down and applying for an internship at one of the big companies in Star City. Felicity resented being a rat in the rat race, another cog in the big corporate machine. She often argued that her job at Tech Village gave her adequate medical insurance and enough (albeit slightly meager) income to live on. It also afforded her plenty of freedom to pursue their vigilante activities. 

John thought that she was wasting her life and often lectured her that a genius who graduated from MIT at nineteen, should be doing more with her life than holed up in a dead end job at Tech Village.

“I should have never brought you into the fold and trained you,” he muttered.

“John, don’t be like that,” Felicity pouted at him from across the table. “I have issues with authority. Had those issues long before I met you. You can’t pin that on yourself.”

“I probably made those issues worse. Teaching you to fight, asking you to hack,” John brooded. A silence descended over the table for a few minutes before he continued.

“Queen Consolidated is offering paid internships. The salaries are very competitive. Applications close next week. Remember your promise Felicity.”

“Oliver Queen saw my face tonight. I can’t possibly work there,” Felicity retorted, feeling pleased. Perhaps it was a blessing after all that, that idiot had seen her face and tried to hit on her.

“That boy is as dumb as a sack of rocks. He won’t recognize you after a few months. Interviews don’t start for another month. He would be embroiled in another scandal by then and would have long forgotten you.”

“But...” Felicity opened her mouth to protest but was swiftly interrupted by John.

“I have trained you and worked with you for two years. Two years ago you said you were too young to pursue a serious career because all the interns would be older than you. It’s been two years and you’ve caught up a bit in age so I expect you to keep your end of the bargain. You promised me Felicity that if I trained you and let you go on missions, you’d settle down and give corporate life a try. How do you know you won’t like it if you don’t even try?”

Felicity let out a long tortured huff before replying with a woe be gone expression on her face, “If I apply and get the internship at Queen Consolidated, will you still let me go on missions and let me work with you? WITHOUT anymore lectures about how I’m not fulfilling my potential?”

John beamed at her fondly from across the table, pleased that after two years he was finally making progress. “Of course. How would I manage without my little tech genius?”

***

It had been a month since Oliver first laid eyes on her and he couldn’t get her out of his head, the heavenly creature who had saved him. He could still see her clearly, her image etched into his brain. Tiny petite frame with shiny wavy brown hair pulled haphazardly into a pony tail, pale creamy skin that looked like soft woven silk, rosy cheeks and bright red lips. He remembered her scowl fondly and over the course of the month he found himself imagining what she’d look like if she smiled. He had to see this girl again. His ethereal, scowling angel who had no patience for him.

Oliver had met and been with his fair share of beautiful women. He had never had one save his life and then brush him off as if her were a pesky little mosquito before. He had to find her again. If only to watch her scowl at him some more.

After she had unceremoniously dumped him on the kerb, Oliver had trudged in, back to the welcome arms of his very relieved parents and sister. He didn’t know why but he withheld the true story of his rescue. He told them about being grabbed by the triad, being held in the warehouse but after that his story deviated from the truth. 

His parents thought he had regained consciousness and made a run for it by breaking down the container door while the triad left him alone thinking he was still drugged. Oliver told them he had passed out somewhere after running for a long time. The last thing he remembered was that a very pretty girl had picked him up from the side of the road and taken him home but she had fled before he could thank her.

Oliver had tried scouring the security footage outside Queen Manor only to discover that all the footage from that night had been miraculously erased without a trace. His mystery girl must have something to do with this. She was some sort of super hero. The triad members who kidnapped him had been arrested that night, complete with two suitcases full of drugs. Not only had she saved him, she had also taken down a faction of the triad. Well she and that other fellow she was talking to. Oliver felt an uncomfortable pang of jealousy (an emotion he had never experienced before) whenever he thought of her partner. Her very male partner who probably worked with her and knew all her secrets. 

In desperation he even considered hiring a sketch artist to sketch a photo of her until Tommy had pointed out that the mystery girl, whoever she was, was hardly going to be pleased to find images of herself distributed around the city as if she were some criminal.

It all seemed like a very hopeless situation and as the days went by, after running into one dead end after another Oliver began to despair if he would ever see her again. Little did he know fate would intervene and his luck was about to take a turn.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!!!
> 
> Thank you SO much for all the kudos and comments! It means so much to me that people are actually taking time to read stuff I have written!
> 
> So my plan is the write the entire draft as fast as possible and then edit and release at least one chapter a week, if not two. 
> 
> As I am currently finishing chapter 4 and have chapter 5 planned out (Yay for me! I'm actually organised this time!) I thought you guys might like another update!
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Felicity eyed herself critically in the mirror as she smoothed out her new sleek blonde ponytail one last time. It had taken a while to get used to, after being a brunette all her life but she was totally rocking the blonde hair. The lighter hair color made her look softer, and was less startling against her pale skin. 

Felicity finished off her look with a pair of dark rimmed glasses and  
gave a twirl in front of her mirror. Not looking too bad Smoak, she thought with satisfaction. The dusky pink midi dress she had chosen clung onto her curves attractively and gave her the confidence boost she needed for today without being too loud. Paired with a pair of 3-inch nude pumps, Felicity felt ready to face her final round of interviews at QC.

John did a double take the very first time he saw her blonde hair and glasses. He had beamed proudly at her when Felicity explained that she wanted a fresh start, which meant a new job, a new look and a new mindset. She was going to leave the very last remnants of the little Goth girl behind. 

Oliver paraded through the lobby of QC with a swagger in his step, grinning broadly at everyone who greeted him. He had a lunch date with his mother and Oliver felt confident that with a touch more cajoling, his mother was going to release the funds he needed to open his nightclub with Tommy. 

They had stumbled on this particular brainchild one night after being thrown out of their favorite club for drunk and disorderly behavior. Disgruntled and vowing revenge, they made a pact to open the most successful nightclub in town. Their brilliant plan had hit a snag when Robert Queen, exasperated over Oliver’s latest scandal with the Lance sisters had put his foot down and refused to pony up the money for Oliver’s share of the club. His mother had not been vehemently opposed to the idea and she was slowly starting to come around to the idea of him owning his own business, thinking that it would ground him and keep him occupied which meant less time for scandals.

He had also scheduled a meeting with a private investigator after lunch with Moira, in the hopes of tracking down his heroic mystery woman. He wasn’t sure why he felt the burning need to find her again but something told him that he was going to be consumed with images of her until he found her. He had reached the point where he believed that he just wanted to see her one more time for closure. This investigator had come highly recommended and specialized in finding people who didn’t wish to be found. Overall Oliver felt his week was on the up and up. 

Oliver rounded a marble pillar and made his way towards the lifts when lightning stuck him again for the second time. His jaw dropped as he stared at the sight before him. Exiting the lifts was his angel. She looked completely different, she was now blonde with glasses but she was unmistakably his angel from that night. He’d recognize that porcelain face, the cute little nose and those soft pink lips anywhere. She was practically glowing with happiness today, bounding out of the lifts, looking like every bit the angel he had been conjuring up in his mind the last month.

“Felicity,” he whispered loudly, one of those incredibly loud whispers that was designed to attract attention rather than shy from it. He made a beeline towards her and whisper shouted her name again, “Feliciteeeeeeeeee. Psssttttt!!!!”

***

Felicity was having one of the best days of her life. Her final interview had gone swimmingly and she was brimming with excitement at the prospect of starting work at QC. Robert Queen was wise, charming and had been immensely impressed with her academic achievements. He had chastised her for not applying to QC sooner, stating that they were scouring the country for graduates like her. 

Robert insisted that she stay back to sign her contract right away and had explained that she was to go through a one-year rotation program in every major department at QC before applying for a role in whichever division she wished to work in. 

Felicity exited the lift with a spring in her step and couldn’t wait to tell John about her day. Bless his big heart he was going to be so thrilled for her. This was everything he had wanted for her. He was definitely going to say *I told you so* but Felicity didn’t mind too much. 

“Felicity! Feliciteeeeeeeee!!!!”

Felicity froze in horror as soon as she heard her name. The voice was unmistakable and no one in her entire life had ever said her name like that. It was him. Too afraid to look up she wondered if she could just make a break for it and sprint out of the building. She decided against this. He would most likely chase after her and make a big scene. If there was one thing that she had learned from the tabloids it was that Oliver Queen was not one to shy away from a good public scene. 

She was momentarily tempted to pretend that her name *wasn’t* Felicity but that would be ridiculous since she had just filled out her name on all her tax and employment forms minutes earlier and if she was to work here she couldn’t very well pretend that Felicity was not her name. No the only thing to do was to address him and pretend that she had no idea what he was talking about.

Slowly she peered up at him from behind her glasses and pasted a suitably pleasant but confused look on her face.

“Mr Queen Jr? Are you addressing me?”

“Felicity! It’s you! It’s really you. I’ve been looking for you for the past month. Talk about fate. Can’t believe I would just run into you here at QC. I wanted to thank you properly for saving me.” Excitement practically bubbled from him as he tried to reach for her shoulder. Felicity resisted the urge to swat his hand away, instead opting to back away swiftly. 

“I’m afraid you have the wrong person Mr. Queen. My name is Felicity but I don’t think we’ve ever met before. I…I just have one of those faces! I’ve always been told that I look like someone’s cousin, sister, friend, you get the idea.” She smiled uncomfortably at him trying to extract herself from the conversation. “I hope you find whoever you’re looking for. Goodbye Mr. Queen. It was nice to meet you.”

She waved at him awkwardly and proceeded to walk away but he ran after her again.

“No it’s you! I would remember your face anywhere and I never remember women’s faces! They all look more or less the same to me and it’s one big blur but I remember you. You saved me. I thought you were beautiful that night but you’re even more beautiful in daylight.”

“Charming,” Felicity muttered under her breath, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes. He pounced on her slip in façade at once. 

“It IS you! That same exasperated unimpressed look! It IS you. Why are you so defensive anyway? I just wanted to thank you for saving me.” Oliver was starting to feel indignant. He had been nothing but complimentary to her (and he had genuinely meant every word too which was a rarity for him) and he was starting to take offense at her constant attempts to run away from him. 

Felicity glanced around the lobby suspiciously, thanking her lucky stars that it was empty bar the doorman situated at the main entrance. She grabbed Oliver’s wrist and pulled him behind a pillar. “Look Mr. Queen,” she began in a pleading tone.

“Oliver,” he corrected her, flashing her an amused smile, his bright blue eyes crinkling attractively. She was taken back by how genuine the smile seemed. She had seen enough of him on TV and in magazines to see his *schtick* and had thought him devastatingly handsome but completely insincere. The charming playboy billionaire routine did nothing for her. She preferred her men bookish and adorkable. 

“Call me Oliver,” he paused for a few seconds before adding a soft, “Please.”

Felicity’s tummy gave a little flutter but she steadfastly ignored it and continued addressing him. “Oliver, I have just signed a contract to work here so I’d really appreciate it if you left me alone and pretended the other night didn’t happen.”

“Wow,” Oliver let out a quiet whistle and grinned at her. “That’s the first time a woman has asked me to pretend the other night didn’t happen. Usually they try to get my number.”’

“Look you know what I mean,” Felicity hissed, feeling irritated at him again. “I don’t want any trouble. The rest of us poor plebs actually need to make a living so let’s just pretend we’ve never met ok? Call it repayment for me saving you?”

“Can’t I at least buy you lunch? Dinner? I’ve spent a month trying to track you down and today BAM I run into you here of all places. It’s like…destiny,” his face lit up as he beamed at her. Felicity could see why so many women fell for him.

“No, not destiny. Star City is a pretty small place if you think about it and since you’ve just admitted to trying to stalk me there was a high chance that we’d see each other again. Anyways I digress. This job is important to me so can you please pretend we’ve never met and don’t bring up the whole me saving you thing,” she whispered, glancing around nervously.

“Oh I didn’t tell anyone about the warehouse,” he assured her calmly. “I just told them a beautiful young woman found me by the side of the road and then dropped me off home. Relax! You secret is safe with me,” he winked at her conspiratorially.

“Thank you,” Felicity mumbled, feeling somewhat relieved. As far as she could tell Oliver Queen didn’t mean any harm. He was just a bored billionaire digging into something that fascinated him which could be dangerous in itself but at least there was no malice behind it. “I…I’d better get going. Remember what I said. If you ever run into me again pretend we don’t know each other!” 

She turned her heel to leave but he placed a hand on her arm gently and dropped his next bombshell. “Hey are you some kind of vigilante? Do you work with that fellow, Star City’s vigilante, the Hood he calls himself?”

The wise and calm thing to do would have been to just ignore the question and stalk off but Felicity was feeling neither wise nor calm after this little gem. In fact she was plenty spooked and immediately wondered what she was going to say to John or if she should say anything to John at all. He had been so thrilled about her settling down at QC, she was loathed to burst his bubble. 

She narrowed her eyes as her hand darted up and yanked Oliver by the tie down to her level, pulling his face so close to hers their noses were practically touching. Her eyes bore into his as she issued her threat. “Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT speak of things you do not understand. Consider this a warning Queen and stay the hell away from me.” 

Without another word she released him, straightened his tie and stalked out of the building.

***

Oliver had never believed in destiny or the concept of *the one*. In fact he had gone out of his way to bed as many women as possible and in all his years of loving and leaving them he had never felt that anything was different between each and every woman he was with. Laurel had stood out amongst the many faces but his feelings for her had always comprised of guilt and a nagging sense of obligation. If he had to use one word to describe his relationship with Laurel it would be joyless. He was ecstatically relieved when they had imploded in a spectacular fashion. Oliver wondered maybe if he had been waiting his entire life for her to stop forgiving his indiscretions so they could end it once and for all.

He wondered if this is what fate had installed for him all along. That none of the romantic relationships in his life had ever mattered and it was all a way of passing time until he reached that moment where he met Felicity. He had to see her again. 

He knew he would have been attracted to her regardless. That if she had never saved him and had simply passed him in the QC lobby one day he would still be drawn to her. The combination of her rescuing him, her mysterious ways and her threatening him (holy hell she was hot when she did that), all this culminated into one intoxicating formula that drew him in even more.

He grinned as he cancelled his appointment with the private investigator and continued his way up to meet his mother for lunch. He had just formulated the perfect idea. He was going to get the funding for his club and spend plenty of time with Felicity in the process.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!
> 
> I am going pretty well with my writing and have a nice buffer of chapters so thought I'd post the next chapter.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

Felicity sat in the small meeting room, drumming her fingers softly on her black leather handbag as she waited for someone from HR to pick her up and take her around QC before dropping her off at her first rotation. She was brimming with excitement and slightly buzzed from all the caffeine she had consumed earlier this morning. John, mother hen that he was, had taken her out for breakfast and dropped her off one block from QC, coddling her like it was her first day of kindergarten. Not that Felicity minded. It was nice to be babied, especially since her own mum lived so far away and since their relationship was rather…complicated.

Felicity decided it had been the right thing not to tell John about her second encounter with Oliver Queen. It would only make him worry and her threat must have scared Oliver off as she had not heard from him since that day. Felicity knew that as the CEO’s son, Oliver would be able to get his hands on her basic employee information had he wanted to harass her further but as there had been no sign of him, Felicity took it to mean that he had found something or someone else to pursue. This revelation didn’t thrill her as much as she thought it should, however she pushed such silly notions aside and tried not to think about it any further.

Today she opted to wear a modest teal coloured skater dress, which she had bought (on sale) especially for her first day of work. It was figure hugging on top and landed just above the knee. The dress made her look cute and gave her some personality without being too garish. 

Felicity had been told that she was to be paired up with another intern for the twelve-month rotation duration. They called it the QC Buddy System and while the old Goth Felicity would have rolled her eyes and sniggered at this concept, the new and more upbeat Felicity was a little bit thrilled at the prospect of potentially making a new friend. Hopefully she was going to be paired with a decent person.

She adored John but he was always on her case about making friends her age. Plus it would be fun to befriend someone who was into the same pop culture references, TV and movies as her. John was a darling but he was broody and she always got the feeling her was only indulging her whenever they went out and watched something together. 

The door swung open and Felicity immediately turned her head, her face muscles shifting to form a big smile as she prepared to greet whoever it was that walked through the door. 

Her face froze mid smile when she realized who had walked into the room. Beaming smugly at her and looking oh so proud of himself was Oliver Queen. 

“Hello, you’re Felicity right? Felicity Smoak? Lovely to meet you. My name is Oliver Queen. I understand that we are to be QC Buddies for the intern program.” He offered her a hand and smiled at her pleasantly, as if nothing had happened and they were two normal people meeting for the very first time at a new job.

“What is the meaning of this?” Felicity whispered through gritted teeth. “What game are you playing at Queen? Why the hell are you stalking me at my first day on the job.”

“I thought you told me to pretend that we’ve never met before? How did I do?” he whispered back, beaming at her like an over eager puppy.

“I also told you to stay the hell away from me! Did you miss that bit?” Felicity demanded.

“But that’s not going to be possible Felicity. I am part of the internship and I am your designated QC Buddy. Says so right here on my Orientation form. Didn’t you get one of those?”

Felicity let out a frustrated yelp and continued to glare at him. “But you’re the big boss’s son! You’ve never worked a day in your life before so why start now? Did you even go to college? Plus you’re so…so…old,” she finished lamely gesturing towards him. “This program is for graduates!”

“Felicity you wound me,” he feigned a look of heartbreak and clutched his chest. “I’m only six years older than you. What can I say? I had a change of heart and have decided that I am now one hundred per cent devoted to running my family business. And there is no better way to learn about the business than through the internship. So what do you say Buddy? We’re going to be spending a lot of time with each other. Shall we start again?” He offered his hand once more, wearing a hint of a smirk on his face. 

Felicity didn’t know why she did what she did next. She prided herself in being mostly a very calm and collected person. Sure she had a tendency to ramble when she was nervous but she definitely wasn’t one of those angry people who went “Grrr” when they got angry. In fact Felicity was usually a champion at stoically burying all her hurt and anger. 

Something about the smug look on his face made her snap. The fact that he thought it was nothing to mess with her livelihood just to satisfy some fascination that he had with her did not sit well and it brought out the old Goth Felicity in her. This was a classic case of a spoiled bratty playboy who had never faced any real consequences, choosing to play a game of cat and mouse with someone who had less power than him. A flash of anger coursed through her as she shot out of her seat, grabbed his hand and twisted his arm behind his back, causing him to wince in pain. 

Her voice was soft but the anger in it was unmistakable. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing but you’d better stop trying to play these games with me or I will…”

“Or you will what Miss Smoak?” a commanding voice demanded causing Felicity to jump and let go of her grip on Oliver. Felicity’s eyes widened in horror as she stared at Moira Queen’s furious face. 

“This is who you’ve been raving about Robert? This is the best and the brightest? This girl who is threatening our son right here on OUR premises.” 

In her terror Felicity had failed to notice Robert Queen standing next to his wife. Surprisingly he didn’t look angry. He looked thoughtful and dare she say it, vaguely amused. It didn’t matter though. Moira Queen was one scary woman who looked angry enough for the both of them. Felicity gulped. She was going to get thrown out and probably have charges laid against her for laying a hand on the precious Queen progeny. 

Surprisingly it was Oliver who came to her rescue. 

“Mum, Dad! What a nice surprise. It’s not what it looks like I promise. The most amazing thing happened to me this morning. I’ve had the shock of my life. Turns out my QC Buddy is also the mysterious heroine who picked me off the kerb and brought me home. This is Felicity! We all owe her a huge thank you for saving me.” He smiled cheerfully at everyone and casually slung his arm over her shoulders giving her a gentle squeeze. Felicity was too scared of Moira to shrug him off.

“Why did it look like she had you in some sort of death grip?” Moira was not buying into her son’s explanation as evidenced by the severe look she wore on her face.

“She was teaching me self defence,” Oliver replied casually, dismissing the big fuss his mother was making. “I was telling her about my kidnapping ordeal and she demonstrated a few defensive moves I could use if anyone comes after me in the future.”

“Then why did we hear her threaten you verbally as well?” Moira demanded, clearly not willing to let this go. 

“For dramatic effect,” Oliver responded innocently. “She was showing me how she would take down a bad guy if she was attacked. Isn’t she cool?” His excuses were terrible but he managed to look very convinced by what he was trying to sell. 

Moira looked like she wanted to grill them further but Robert stepped in. “Felicity, Oliver great to see that you’ve met already. Oliver your mum and I just wanted to pop in and say hi to you before you start your first day. We’re very proud of you son. We’ve spoilt you in many ways and it’s not easy starting from the bottom so we’re impressed you’re willing to start from scratch instead of demanding a VP position.” 

Oliver swelled with pride at his dad’s words and beamed at everyone. Upon seeing her son smile, Moira’s expression softened slightly. It was evident that Moira, despite her scariness, loved her son very much.

“Stop by my office after you’ve had your tour, both of you. I have a few matters I want to address with both of you before you head off on your first rotation in the IT Department. Just tell Janine I’m expecting you and walk right in.” He smiled kindly at them and ushered Moira out the door much to Felicity’s relief.

***

Felicity felt jittery and on edge during her entire tour of QC. She knew that Oliver was watching her out of the corner of his eye. He looked like her was genuinely concerned about her.

As they headed up to Level 32 to Robert Queen’s office, Felicity suddenly felt a strong need to clear the air between them. She stopped midway and pulled Oliver into an empty meeting room. 

“Look I’m sorry,” she said when he gave her a quizzical look. “I’m sorry I used violence against you and I just want you to know that I’m not an angry person by nature and I don’t usually resort to violence.” 

She pondered for a bit, wrinkled her nose and continued. “Although I do get a bit mean when I’m stressed. I was a bit rattled by you appearing suddenly everywhere and I thought you were going to cause trouble for me. Thank you for defending me in front of your mum.” 

“I’m sorry for chasing you around when you obviously didn’t want me to. I’ve kinda been a bit obsessed with you since you saved me and wanted to get to know you better so I rigged the internship applications and made sure I was paired with you. I…You’re the most interesting girl I’ve ever met in my life.” He smiled a gorgeous, sincere smile at her, his blue eyes crinkling beautifully with warmth in them. 

Felicity felt her face heat up and silently prayed that she wasn’t turning beet red. 

“So you think I’m interesting huh? Is this because I saved you and threatened you at the same time?” she teased him playfully. She didn’t know why but ever since he’d dropped that over confident playboy swagger she was feeling much less defensive and edgy about him. 

“Well I did say you were beautiful several times but all that got me was your very loud voice,” he countered mischievously. “Come on, let’s go see my dad.”

***

Rationally Felicity knew that Robert Queen wasn’t calling her in to fire her. One, she was with Oliver and two, there was no need to send her on a two hour tour of the premises only to fire her afterwards. Still the rich were eccentric so she couldn’t disregard the idea completely.

“I suppose you’re both wondering why I called you in?” Robert smiled at them, as they sat fidgeting slightly, like a pair of naughty school children. Felicity suppressed a giggle as she suddenly wondered if he was going to give them a lecture on getting along and playing nice. 

“Ms Smoak, Moira and I would like to thank you for rescuing our son. It has come to my attention that aside from your very impressive academic record, you also have some skills in self defence which is why I wish to make the following offer.”

“Oh,” Felicity eyes widened, intrigued at what he was about to say next.

“Oliver here, has a bad habit of ditching his body guard and then finding himself in *situations*.” Robert put extra emphasis on the word situations and shot Oliver a knowing look. Felicity found herself wondering what those situations were exactly. 

“Which is why I am offering you a job on the side as his body guard, in addition to your internship at QC. We are willing to pay you a lump sum of five hundred thousand dollars at the end of one year. When the year is up you can decide between yourselves whether Oliver still needs a bodyguard. You will of course also retain your position at QC whatever is you chose to apply for after your rotation finishes.”

“Nice to see I’m also being consulted in this since I’m the subject that needs guarding,” Oliver snapped. 

“I was getting to you next son. We both know you’re notorious for ditching your bodyguards. Let’s all be honest in your mother’s absence and admit that you only agreed to this internship at QC so that you could chase Felicity around and so that your mother and I would release the funds you need for your nightclub project.”

Oliver considered protesting but thought the better of it. His father was a shrewd man and was considerably less blinded towards his children’s faults. Moira may be a force to reckon with but she adored her children to a fault and had trouble saying no to them. Robert had fewer qualms doing so. 

“If you agree to cooperate with Felicity, after your one year is up, we will release the funds you need for your nightclub. But mind you I expect full cooperation. Which means that you do not ditch her or go out of your way to make her job of protecting you any harder than it already is.”

“I’ll let you two work it out and come back to me with an answer by next week. Ms Smoak, should you wish to refuse the offer, your internship with QC still stands.” 

“I can’t guard him at night! I..ugh..I have commitments. At night. And no I’m not a lady of the night or anything like that.” Felicity blurted out before she could stop herself. “I just don’t want to follow your son around clubbing every night,” she finished lamely wishing a trap door would open and swallow her up.

Star City had calmed down significantly in recent times but John still went out on patrol at least four times a week, not to mention the occasional side missions that they undertook every once in a while. 

“If you can work two nights a week, we can get Goran his current body guard to cover all the other night shifts,” Robert assured her smoothly.

“But night time is when your son causes the most trouble!” Felicity protested earnestly, eliciting a chuckle from the two men in the room. Way to talk yourself out of a hefty pay check Smoak she thought to herself. 

“I’ll be on my best behaviour I promise,” Oliver declared with mock solemnity, causing her to bristle indignantly.

“You two head off now. I have an important meeting in five minutes. Think about it and give me an answer next week. Remember you both have to be on board for this to work. Personally I think you’d be mad not to take my offer. You’re going to spend the next twelve months together anyway which means that the only extra time you’re forced to spend together are your weekends and lunch breaks.” He gave them a kind smile and waved them off.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys
> 
> Here is your weekly instalment! Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Thank you for your lovely comments on the last chapter! hehehe yes Robert Queen is an Olicity shipper (isn't everyone =P )
> 
> I haven't addressed each comment individually but I also want to apologise to anyone I annoy if the story, plot, or characters don't live up to what you were hoping for or don't make sense to you. 
> 
> Ultimately I can only write what comes into my head and what my actual ability allows me to write (some things are beyond my abilities if I am to be honest). I write to exercise my brain and also hopefully to entertain a few people along the way. This is not (and will never be) a masterpiece. At best it will be a fun story without too many plot holes (I hope!)! 
> 
> Cheers

Felicity was bored out of her brain. She had absolutely nothing to do. She considered sneaking out of QC but her gig guarding Oliver meant that she was stuck here as long as he still had work to do. She pushed her chair away from her desk and spun herself around several times before peering curiously at Oliver to see where he was up to. As plebs they had been designated the task of running a series of manual tests on some of QC’s latest software. The code for the software was atrocious and was the kind of stuff that gave Felicity nightmares at night. It was a sloppy job and what could easily be done using two lines of code was haphazardly strung together in about ten lines. 

Felicity was wise enough to keep her opinions to herself (nobody likes a know-it-all and an intern at that). She knew full well she would get her day in the sun when her year was up so there was no need to preach on deaf ears. However she did relish in bypassing the system by writing a series of automated tests, which effectively reduced what was to be a three-day job down to just a few hours.  
Poor Oliver on the other hand was industriously clicking away, doing all his testing manually. 

“Shouldn’t you be working instead of spinning your chair around and wasting time,” he grumbled. “You’re the one who’s always lecturing me on good work ethics and I have seen you watch YouTube videos for the last three hours.”

“I’m done,” Felicity shrugged casually.

“What do you mean you’re done? We were just given these this morning! They’ve allocated three days for these tests.”

“I mean exactly what I said my dear Oliver! I am done! Finished! Free! For the next three days at least.”

“But how?” he asked incredulously.

“Wrote an automated testing program to walk through all my common testing scenarios,” she responded.

“Can you say that again in English please?” There was an unmistakable hint of awe in his voice. 

“I wrote a little program that runs in the background and does all the clicking that you are so industriously doing right now. At the end of the day it will generate the same reports that we get if we were to do it manually.”

“And you’re just going to leave me here to click for the next three days,” he asked with an exaggerated look of hurt on his face.

“Didn’t you sign up so you could, and I quote *learn the ropes of the family business*. What would be the lesson in this if I did your work for you?”

“I’ve been clicking for the last three hours. I have RSI in my right hand. No lesson can be learned from doing this for the next three days,” he deadpanned.

“It’s character building,” Felicity retorted, giving him a robust pat on the shoulder, intended for the purposes of aggravating him. 

It had become their little routine to exaggeratedly bicker like an old married couple. They actually got a long extremely well much to Felicity’s surprise. The words “getting a long” and “Oliver Queen” were two things she never imagined would be in her vocabulary when she started this job. She had anticipated wanting to kill him at every turn but this had not been the case. In fact apart from harmlessly bickering about irrelevant things, they seldom clashed on any major issues.

“You didn’t sit around clicking!!!” Oliver protested. “You’ve been watching panda videos all morning.”

“I have plenty of character already,” she grinned at him. She counted backwards in her head and timed him, three, two, one.

“Feeeeeliiiiciiiiteeeeee,” he whined. “Help me out!”

“Actually I was just messing with you. Shove over; I’ll automate it for you. No one deserves to sit here and click for the next three days. Not even you.” She pushed his chair away from his desk and scuttled over. 

Twenty minutes later Felicity finished the task and they found themselves staring at the prospect of three days of freedom. 

“You’re a genius,” Oliver declared, batting his eyes dreamily at her. “You’re the woman of my dreams. I could kiss you for that.”

“You could, but you won’t,” Felicity replied, feigning a yawn. “Because we both know what will happen if you try to kiss me.”

“You’ll fall madly in love with me because it would be the best kiss you’ve ever had?” 

“No, you’ll get a black eye.”

It was also a part of their routine for him to flirt shamelessly with her and for her to reject him, usually by threatening bodily harm. Felicity was honest enough to admit to herself that sometimes it was flattering to have him flirt with her constantly. He looked like a cross between a Greek God and an underwear model, she’d have to be dead if her heart didn’t skip a beat every now and then when he made heart eyes at her. But Felicity was no fool. She had been burned before and Oliver Queen was...well he was Oliver Queen. He flirted with any attractive female who was of legal age. Hell he probably slept with any female that was of legal age. She allowed herself a flirtatious quip back every once in a while but deep down she knew Oliver was a no go zone. She wasn’t a sadist. She was never going to open that door. 

“Earth to Felicity! Did you really just threaten me and then zone out,” Oliver was waving a hand in front of her face.

“Sorry there was something on my mind,” she smiled at him. Sensing she didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t ask what she had been thinking about. That was another thing she liked about Oliver. For someone who at the beginning had been a pest, determined to chase her around, these days he was remarkably perceptive of her moods and knew when not to press her.

“Come on let’s take a long lunch QC Buddy! We deserve it!” he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her chair.

***

Oliver could not help but swoon a little as he watched Felicity scrutinize her menu from across the table. She was calculating prices, her little button nose, wrinkling slightly as she considered her options, trying to find the one that was best value. Oliver geared himself up for another debate about the bill. It was maddening the way Felicity insisted on paying for her share of the bill and then ordering what he knew she considered the “bargain dish” rather than something she absolutely wanted. He had tried to bring it up a few times before and had insisted on paying for lunch but Felicity was as stubborn as stubborn and would not have a bar of it. 

Oliver had always paid handsomely whenever he was entertaining a girl. He never minded spending money on endless bottles of Dom, meals at the most high end restaurants, forking the bill for penthouse hotel suites or in the case of Laurel, thousands of dollars on meaningless apology jewellery and designer clothes. The money was free flowing but he did acknowledge to himself that on some level he regarded the recipients with a hint of contempt. They were with Oliver Queen because he could provide them with the finer things in life, he forked out the cash because it was easier to pay for things than to reciprocate with genuine affection.

Felicity was infuriating. He had never wanted to just buy someone a meal as badly as he wanted to for her. But she steadfastly kept on refusing, never accepting anything more from him than a packed lunch made by Raisa or any leftovers that she managed to raid from the fridge at Queen Manor when she dropped him home after a shift (Felicity had fast become a favourite with Raisa and the latter went out of her way to box up extra food for her). 

It aggravated him because he knew that by refusing a gesture as small as lunch she was setting up a barrier between them. She was sending him a message that Felicity Smoak was not the kind of girl he could buy off. Fundamentally he didn’t have a problem with this theory, he even agreed with it. He had a problem with the fact that she assumed he thought she was just another girl. Some random skirt that he was chasing. He wanted her to realize that to him she was…Felicity.  
She was in a league of her own.

“What are you having?” he asked when she finally set her menu down.

“The chicken karaage set.”

“Why no salmon? You love salmon sashimi?” he demanded.

“Not at these prices I don’t. I could buy a slab of sashimi grade salmon at Costco and slice it up myself at home. Ten serves of raw fish for the price of one plate of sashimi here. And slicing raw fish is the one thing that I can do without messing up too much,” she grinned at him.

“Aren’t you getting your $500,000 for guarding me? Surely you can buy yourself some fish with that money.”

“I only get that if I don’t kill you by the end of 12 months. We’ve only made it three months so far. I’m not going to spend money I don’t have yet. I might have a lapse and decide it’s worth $500,000 and jail time to kill you after all,” Felicity said gravely with a straight face.

“You know if you would just let me…” Oliver started, knowing that it was probably futile to argue with her. Really it was ridiculous that she wouldn’t let him buy her raw fish! 

“Don’t start Oliver. We agreed before we started working together remember? I pay for my own meals.” Seeing his downcast face she added, “But my birthday is next month and you can buy me a birthday meal if you like.”

“You mean you’ll go on dinner date with me on your birthday?” Oliver asked, eyes lighting up.

“I mean I'll let you buy me a meal. Now whether you want to buy me that meal at noon or in the evening that’s up to you. It’s a meal.”

Sometimes he just couldn’t work her out. Did she agree to a date or not? The woman was maddening. Sure he realized that she was special, awesome and amazing (anyone who saved him from a kidnapping was going to be amazing in his eyes) and he was into her for all those reasons but sometimes he wished that for once she wasn’t twenty steps ahead of him. As a further blow to his dignity, he found himself blinking foolishly at her. He still couldn’t figure out if that meant yes or no to a date. He bet he looked real dim right now. 

“So what are you going to do this weekend?” she changed the subject as if she had read his mind. 

“I was going to hit Crave with Tommy.”

“Oh,” she said softly, almost involuntarily, her expression unreadable.

“I figured I haven’t been to any clubs for a few weeks. Should check out what the future competition has to offer.”

“Umm hmm,” she nodded, a brief look of something unrecognizable crossed her face but her features ironed out so quickly and expertly he had no time to ponder what she could have been thinking. It wasn’t a look he had seen before and it certainly wasn’t the look of jealousy he had been hoping to see.

Oliver knew he wasn’t the brightest spark. In fact some of the things he had done in the past were downright stupid. These included his attempts to make Felicity jealous when she first started guarding him. 

He had made a point of dragging her to a new club on each of the two nights she was on duty and making out with as many girls as possible in her line of sight. When she showed no perceptible reaction, he had upped the ante and hired a private room whilst asking her to wait outside. There he would hide in the bathroom for hours on end, telling any of the girls he brought in that he had eaten some dodgy seafood earlier in the day and was now suffering from the after affects. He made sure that the champagne order was flowing. By the time he snuck out of the bathroom his guests were too drunk to take any notice of him and he would find Felicity stoically stationed outside the door, politely asking him if he would like to go home yet as her shift ended at midnight. There was no scorn, no disgust, and no judgment. Simply nothing. 

He learned quickly to drop that game. With his tail between his legs he had made sure he only went drinking with Tommy, to the gym, to sports games or spend his nights back at home much to his mother’s delight and his father’s approval. Once again she made no reference or comment as to how he spent his nights. But he did notice that after some time her reactions to him had become less polite and had eventually settled down to the kind of banter they currently had. Oliver was satisfied with that. For now anyway. 

***

Oliver pushed his way through a sea of bodies as the loud music continued to boom, steadfastly avoiding eye contact with any of the female population for fear that they would approach him. This had now become his default reaction whenever he visited a club and part of him wondered if he was just simply too old for this or whether it was caused by his feelings for a certain blonde hair, blue eyed computer genius. 

Tommy was nowhere to be seen as Oliver made his way up the balcony where he hoped he could scope out the club scene in peace. He suddenly felt his phone vibrate and onscreen popped the picture he had secretly taken of Felicity during lunch one day. Her hair elastic had snapped that day, causing her curls to flow freely, framing her face, making her look even more beautiful if that was possible.

“Checking up on me,” he quipped as soon as he answered the call. “You’ll be pleased to know that I am currently being a model citizen at Crave.”

“Oliver, I need you to listen to me. Do you have access to a car you can drive?” Felicity’s voice was breathless, and not in a sultry way. She sounded like she had been running and was struggling for air. 

“Felicity, what’s wrong? I took the Maserati out tonight. Where the hell are you?” He was suddenly hit with a wave of sheer terror. She never called him on her nights off and the breathless sound of her voice terrified him.

“Oliver, I need you to do something for me. I need you to ditch Goran and I need you to meet me at the back exit, the one facing the alley. Can you get there as quickly as you can?” There was an urgency in her voice that gave him the chills.

“I’m heading there right now. Hold on Felicity. I am on my way as we speak. STAY ON THE PHONE.” He glanced around to see Goran engrossed in a deep conversation with a pretty waitress. Ducking behind another guest, he pushed his way down the stairs and sprinted through the crowd towards the back exit.

***

“You came,” she smiled a relieved smile at him. She was a vision to behold with her hair down, prettily styled in masses of corkscrew curls. Her lily white, toned body had been poured into an itty bitty little gold dress that left little to the imagination. Oliver would have committed this image of her to memory for the next few months if it hadn’t been for the obvious wound in her shoulder and the specks of blood that were now dripping down her dress. 

“F*ck,” he cursed, once he fully processed the situation before him. “What the hell happened Felicity. Did you…..did you get stabbed?”

“Only a little bit,” she replied, trying to make light of the situation.

“As opposed to a lot???” he screeched at her. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

“No Oliver. I can’t go to the hospital. Give me your keys. Give me your keys and tell Goran that someone stole your car. I will take care of this but I need your car,” she told him calmly, although he could see her wincing in pain.

“Like hell you’re going to drive around with a stab wound in your shoulder,” he snapped at her. “What the f*ck Felicity! Get in the car I’m taking you wherever you need to go.”

“I can’t involve you in this Oliver. I need your car right now. Give me the keys. I’ll fix things by tomorrow I promise.”

“You either get in the car and tell me where to drive you or I swear I’ll ring 911 right now,” he threatened. For a moment she looked like she was going to protest but she simply nodded and followed him quickly towards his car, getting into the backseat. She recited the address quickly and leaned her forehead against the front passenger seat.

“Why aren’t you sitting properly,” he demanded as he sped down the road as fast as he could, praying that no cops were around at this time to pull him over.

“I don’t want to get blood on your car,” she mumbled. “Can’t afford the cleaning bill.”

***

Felicity tried her best not to grimace as John put the final touches to her wound, having cleaned it minutes earlier with assistance from Oliver. She really was lucky that it wasn’t very deep. Speaking of Oliver, Felicity tried her best to suppress a giggle as she snuck a peek at his forlorn form, lying on the couch with a cold compress pressed to his forehead. 

He had been valiant and fearless, volunteering to pass supplies while John sewed Felicity up. At first he seemed fine, a bit squeamish but fine. Things had taken a turn for the worse when poor Oliver’s face started to take on the shade of green mould and he passed out before they had a chance to catch him, banging his forehead on a chair in the process. It was nothing some smelling salts couldn’t fix but Oliver’s pride had been irrevocably wounded and he had taken to sulking on the couch with his cold compress. 

Felicity allowed herself a quick smile before turning her attention to John. Or rather she was biding her time and waiting for John’s wrath. To be more precise there wasn’t actually any wrath to incur. John Diggle, didn’t get angry. At least not with Felicity. He saved that for the criminals he beat up on patrol. Rather he just liked to shoot Felicity a series of “I’m very disappointed in you” looks and a few plaintive “I thought you were more responsible than that” sighs, which kept Felicity on her toes.

“I’m sorry!” Felicity finally blurted out. “It was a terrible idea to go out alone without telling you but I honestly thought it was just a quick sneak in, sneak out job. I didn’t want to always run squealing to you for help and advice about everything. I wanted to be the little vigilante that could.”

John tried his best to hold it in but couldn’t resist cracking a smile at her little comment. “I’d rather you be the little vigilante that lived Felicity.”

“I know,” Felicity said sorrowfully. “I will never go out alone again, at least not without tell you first. On the bright side before I got into a scuffle with the hired thug I managed to swipe a sample of these.” She showed him two vials of clear blue liquid. “There were hundreds of these in the fridge upstairs in Dylan Whittaker’s office. I’ll get the sample analyzed and find out what the key ingredients are. Then I’ll track the orders and shipments of the raw chemicals used to make this drug and we’ll finally know who our diabolical chemist is and where he or she operates.” 

“You think this is Mist, the drug used to drug young women recently in Star City.”

“Yup,” Felicity responded. “Dark Net chatter indicates that Whittaker is a key supplier, selling vials of these during raves and dance parties. I am 99% sure these vials contain Mist. I just need to get them tested to find out what individual chemicals are used to make it.” 

“What are we going to do about him?” John asked, eyeing Oliver. Felicity was mildly surprised to see John look so nonplussed that an intruder was lying on their couch, in their lair. 

Upon hearing a reference to him Oliver’s ears perked up as he tried to (not so subtly) listen to their discussion of him. Felicity turned to John, her back facing Oliver, intentionally obstructing his view. “Don’t worry John, I’ll handle it. Do you still have the shovel and ropes in the van?”

A startled squeal erupted from the couch, Felicity turned around and asked Oliver with the most innocent expression on her face, “Ready to go for a ride Oliver?”

“That is just a plain nasty thing to say to wind me up considering I drove the get away car for you tonight?” he bristled, glaring at her petulantly.

“Oh sweetie, it’s not called a get away car unless there is a heist,” Felicity teased. Really an indignant Oliver Queen was the cutest thing. She was allowed to admit he was cute tonight. At least internally. To herself. After all he did get her out of a jam. 

Seeing his miffed expression, Felicity sat down on the couch and smiled at him. “How’s your poor head? Let me take a look.” She examined his head; there was a small blue welt on the left side. 

“A kiss would make it better,” Oliver waggled his eyebrows at her, his face half hopeful, half mischievous. 

Felicity, feeling slightly buzzed from the panadeine forte John had given her for her wound (she had long learnt not to take any of John’s *special aspirins* but panadeine was ok), leaned over and very gently brushed her lips ever so lightly over Oliver’s bruise. 

“That better poppet?” she grinned at him as he gaped at her like a stunned mullet.

“Ahem,” John cleared his throat loudly, flashing them a stern look. “I will drive both of you home. We will work on cover stories in the car.”

“Cool!” Oliver beamed enthusiastically. “Does this mean I’m part of the team now?”

“No!” Felicity and John chorused at him in unison.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!
> 
> Your weekly update! Enjoy!
> 
> And thank you for all the lovely comments on the last chapter! Means the world to me that my story entertains you!
> 
> See you next week!

“Why are we in the science department?” Oliver asked impatiently as he tagged behind Felicity. They were taking a trip down to QC’s labs much to his intrigue. 

“We’re here to see my friend. For a favour. You know to get those samples from the other day analysed.”

“Is your friend a hot nerd too?” Oliver asked, hoping to catch a glimpse of her infamous eye roll. 

Turns out there were no eye rolls on the agenda today. Felicity merely smiled pleasantly and said, “I think so, in a bookish sort of way.”

“So hot like you in a naughty librarian kind of way?” he responded, still wanting to get a rise out of her today. 

“How about I let you decide for yourself?” Felicity once again answered pleasantly. She turned to wave excitedly at someone. 

Oliver peered over curiously to see who she was greeting with such gusto only to lay eyes on a lanky, doe eyed, clean cut youth who was waving with equal enthusiasm back at Felicity. Oliver grimaced. The kid looked much like a long lost member of the Backstreet Boys. The clean cut floppy haired one that the girls screamed over. Oliver was almost expecting him to break out into a cheesy pop song and synchronized dance moves any minute. 

“Felicity, hi! What brings you here today? You need me to test another sports drink sample for you?” 

“Hi Barry,” Felicity beamed back at him. “Yes I was wondering if you could test another sample for me. And Barry I’d really appreciate it if we could just keep this between us.” Felicity flashed Barry another winning smile, which Barry returned with equal zeal. 

Oliver stared at her intently to gauge whether all these smiles were sincere or whether she was just playing Barry for a favour. His heart sank a little when he came to the conclusion that the smiles appeared awfully genuine. It was the same sort of smile she gave him when he did something she thought was amusing. He had thought it was an Oliver only smile. And here she was beaming at this Barry in pretty much the same way. Barry wasn’t even amusing.

“Hi Larry, Oliver Queen,” he extended a hand. “Felicity’s…” He suddenly felt oddly threatened by the beaming boy’s youth. He didn’t want to introduce himself as Felicity’s Intern QC Buddy as he was feeling far too sensitive about being an Intern at his age and he would have rather been dead than admit to this boy Felicity was his body guard, although she’d probably already told Barry about that since they seemed to be best buddies and all. 

“Felicity’s…Oliver,” he ended up finishing lamely, feeling woeful about his total and utter lack of game. 

“Barry…Barry Allen,” the youth replied, returning his handshake with the enthusiasm of a golden retriever. 

“Nice to meet you Larry,” he said deliberately calling Barry by the wrong name out of sheer childish spite. 

“It’s Barry actually,” Barry corrected him good naturedly.

“Right LARRY,” Oliver repeated, taking delight in the fact that Barry’s smile had faltered a little. 

Felicity elbowed him in the ribs and turned to Barry rather apologetically.

“Sorry Barry, will you excuse us for one minute. I’ll be right back. I just have to have a quick chat with Oliver,” Felicity said through gritted teeth and dragged Oliver away. 

“What has gotten into you today? This takes the cake in terms of rudeness even for you!” she hissed at him.

“What’s wrong with me? What about you? Why are you getting him analyse the samples?”

“Because he’s done it before and he’s always been very discreet and helpful about it! And I don’t have the equipment to do it myself.”

“How do you even know him anyway? You’ve only been at QC for a few months and you’re always with me usually. How did you find the time to meet him?” Oliver demanded, feeling very much like the bottom had dropped out of his world. Felicity was supposed to spend her time with him and save the city. When did she find the time to chat up cheesy looking bookish nerds. 

“I met him one night after work when I got a pass to access the labs. The Science department is our next rotation you know. I didn’t think you were interested in checking out the science labs so I went on my own after my shift with you ended. Barry was working late and was really sweet. He showed me around and let me watch him work.”

“Oh I’ll be he couldn’t wait to jump at the chance to show you around,” Oliver muttered darkly. 

“Don’t be ridiculous Oliver!” Felicity hissed, looking over her shoulder quickly to flash Barry another apologetic smile. “He’s a really nice and helpful guy. He runs any tests I ask him to and doesn’t ask any questions.” 

“So this is what you do when you’re away from me? You run down here and get Barry to analyse your samples? I bet Barry can’t wait to get his hands on your samples!”

He put extra emphasis on the word “samples”, despite realizing how ridiculous his accusation was. “Just how many of your *samples* has Barry analyzed?”

“What are you even talking about? He’s my friend, a very nice guy who runs tests on chemical compounds for me when I need him to. What’s gotten into you today?”

“Oh so have you told him all our secrets too? Does he know we’re vigilantes?”

“For the love of Google one adventure with me and hanging around the Lair does not make you a vigilante! Are you crazy? And no I haven’t told Barry anything.”

“I don’t like him,” Oliver declared, for lack of anything better to say. “I really don’t like him.”

“Why on earth don’t you like Barry?” Felicity asked, staring at him as if he were an alien. “Barry is like pudding! Everybody loves pudding!”

“Well I don’t,” Oliver declared sullenly, crossing his arms. 

“This is ridiculous. I don’t care if you like Barry or not. Behave yourself and stop being rude!” Felicity stalked off back to where Barry was patiently waiting for them. Oliver scuttled beside her, not wanting to miss out on her conversation with Barry.

“Sorry about that Barry. Thank you so much for helping with these. You’re a life saver.”

“Anything for you Felicity.” 

They were still beaming at each other. Oliver rolled his eyes and made a small choking sound.

“I…I guess I better head back to the IT Department. I’ll see you around.” She was still smiling at him as she started to step away.

“Hey Felicity,” Barry called after them as they headed towards the lifts. He ran up to Felicity and shifted his weight around nervously. “I have two tickets to see Wicked this Thursday. I…I was wondering if you’d like to go with me.”

“I’d like that very much,” Felicity responded, her face lighting up instantly. “I love Wicked. It’s one of my favorite musicals.”

“Call you later to work out the details?”

“Yes! Yes that would be lovely,” Felicity beamed at Barry again and suddenly Oliver felt like the third wheel as he watched awkwardly while the two of them engaged in a smiling contest. 

“Don’t forget the samples Gary. That’s the reason why she came down here to see you,” he called as he ushered Felicity into the lift that had just arrived.

*** 

Felicity seldom had a day to herself these days. It seemed that for the past few months her life consisted of QC, Oliver Queen, Foundry with John, Oliver Queen, two nights guarding (or as she preferred to think if it, babysitting) Oliver Queen and of course more Oliver Queen. Oliver was everywhere in her life from the moment she woke up to the moment she ended work at QC. To make matters worse some nights he would ditch Goran and show up at the Lair, moseying around, begging John to train him and generally being a nuisance. A nuisance who was thoughtful enough to bring them dinner every time he harassed them. Always something Felicity loved to eat like Thai or dumplings or Japanese Bento. Felicity frowned at once as soon as she caught herself smiling about Oliver Queen. One should not be smiling about Oliver Queen to oneself. It was a downright foolish and dangerous thing to do.

The worse thing about it was that Oliver with all of his clueless persistence had finally managed to break John who was now only half-heartedly threatening to throw him off the premises. The words “Go away, don’t you have anything better to do” were uttered most nights but there was no heat to them.

Thus tonight, Felicity relished in having an evening all to herself, to get ready for her date with Barry. She adored musicals and had been meaning to organize to see Wicked so it was a wonderful stroke of luck that a cute boy had asked to take her.

Felicity couldn’t help but beam a little to herself as she thought of Barry. Barry was cute and non-threatening and made her smile. You couldn’t help but smile at Barry anymore than you could a golden retriever. 

She smoothed out her bright aqua dress, which clung onto her curves beautifully, yet was cut in such a way that it left plenty of room for a big meal to be consumed later and headed out the door.

***

John Diggle was by no means an old man. He knew he was still in his prime, even though he didn’t feel like it most days. Prior to working in security, he had been in the Army. The things he had witnessed there, the things he had, had to do changed him. He came back feeling he needed to atone, hence taking up the mantle of The Hood, trying to right the wrongs in Star City one day at a time. 

Being a vigilante was an unexpected path, however one that was not completely inconceivable in his mind. Being a vigilante and atoning for his sins made sense. What didn’t make sense was how he had come to be embroiled in the romantic affairs of a bunch of twenty something year olds. 

It was a standard night in the Lair, minus Felicity who was on a date, much to John’s delight. Despite their night jobs being anything but normal, there was a part of John that constantly hoped for normalcy for Felicity and if he wasn’t dignified John Diggle, he would have literally jumped for joy at the prospect of her going on a date with some boy she met at work. John had been planning to go on patrol for a few hours and call it a night. That was until he keyed in the code to the Foundry door and walked in to find a morose Oliver Queen staring at Felicity’s bank of computers like a little boy who had just dropped the top of his ice cream cone in the dirt.

“How many times have I told you to stop showing up like this?” John said. He intended for his tone to sound mildly menacing but he couldn’t quite bring himself to muster up the gusto for it. Boy looked devastated tonight and they both knew that it was due to a certain perky blonde going out on a date.

“She’s not coming in tonight,” John said kindly. “Why don’t you head off and do whatever it is you young people do on a Thursday night.”

“Do you think she’d like me more if I could fight?” Oliver asked suddenly. “She’s a brilliant computer genius by day, on track to run the Technology Division of QC one day and this great hero working with you to save the city at night. I’m just some spoilt playboy. Is that why she won’t ever entertain the thought that she and I could be something?”

“Well what do you want from her Oliver? What are you hoping to achieve by chasing her around? What happens after you get the girl? Because if you hurt her I’ll personally make sure they never find your body again.” John didn’t sound menacing at all as he said this. He merely said it in the same tone as if he were announcing he liked eating eggs on toast for breakfast. 

“Everything,” Oliver replied quietly. “I want everything with her. I’ll admit that when I first tried to track her down I was just fascinated with her. Beautiful, mysterious girl saves me. Can you blame me for being obsessed? But then I started working with her at QC and got to know the real Felicity. The girl who can do a few days worth of work in a few hours, the girl who works from 9 to 5 and still takes on the job of guarding me so she can use that money to buy new equipment to help clean up Star City at night.” 

Oliver paused for a few seconds before continuing. “Everyone thinks I want to open my club so I can bed more girls. My parents are eventually going to release the funds but I know they think it’s just another hobby to keep me amused. Felicity sits at lunch and pores over my projected costs for the club with me. She believes in me. But I’m always just going to be the guy that she banters with.” His eyes suddenly widened in horror as a revelation hit him. “Oh my God I’ve been friend zoned! I’m the rascal friend that she’s fond of. I’ve been friend zoned!” 

“Felicity is a realist. She’s very rational, risk averse and reasons her way through most things,” John answered, trying to balance the precarious line between cheering Oliver up and not delving into Felicity’s private life. “And you’re Oliver Queen. Not being harsh but we both know what your reputation is like. You want to make headway with her you’ve got to prove yourself and give her time.”

“She works as a vigilante with you at night,” Oliver argued sullenly glaring at no one in particular. “How is that risk averse?”

“I didn’t say she wasn’t complicated. And you should know there are many kinds of different risks. Felicity is the bravest person I know with almost everything but she’s skittish when it comes to matters of the heart.”

Oliver opened his mouth to ask a question about Felicity’s heart but John shut him down, firmly but kindly. “And before you ask anymore no I do not know about certain parts of her past and even if I did know I wouldn’t tell you anyway.” 

Seeing Oliver’s contemplative, crest fallen face, John reached out and offered him a hand. “Come on I’ll teach you to throw some punches. You’re going to need to up those self defence skills if you keep ditching that Goran fellow every night.

***

Felicity bounded through the QC foyers making her way to the dimly lit cubicles interns were relegated to with Oliver lagging behind her, carrying a stack of cylindrical boxes. 

“Are you sure you don’t need help with those? They’re blocking your vision! You’re going to trip!”

“Just because my father hired you to protect me, that doesn’t mean I’m a weakling who can’t even carry a few boxes. Besides, I’ve been working out with Dig.” He paused; shuffling the stack of boxes to one had, and flexing his now free arm, in an effort to show her his well built biceps.

“Very impressive Mr. Muscles,” Felicity giggled. “You’re well on your way to mastering the salmon ladder with those arms. Now let me take a box for you. What have you got in those anyway?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Oliver answered, pulling the boxes out of her reach and resumed walking again. Once they reached their workspace, he carefully placed the boxes on the table and turned towards her. There was a nervous energy about him. Felicity was intrigued. She had spent enough time with Oliver to see him in just about every mood but had never seen him like this. His default demeanor was always confident and self-assured, sometimes vexingly so. She didn’t think he was capable of feeling nervous.

He placed both hands on her shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze, momentarily closing his eyes. A swarm of butterflies unleashed themselves in Felicity’s tummy and she could feel her heart rate speed up as she took a breath and waited for him to say something. 

“Felicity,” he began. “Felicity I was wondering if you’d go out to dinner with me this Saturday. On a date. I’ll pick you up and get Goran to drive us. Like a proper date without you driving me around.” He fidgeted for a moment, his arms still on her shoulders as if he needed them to ground himself. “What I’m trying to ask is, Felicity Smoak will you go out on a proper date with me?”

He didn’t wait for her answer but continued rambling on. 

“I know you think that I’m still a playboy and that you’ve friend zoned me. You’re so encouraging of everything I do and so warm even when you’re making fun of me. But I’ve realized that if I let this go on any longer I’ll move into *big brother you never had* territory and I have no desire to move there with John, much as I like the man!”

“What I’m trying to say is that ever since I met you I’m trying to be a better person, someone you’d be interested in being involved with. John reckons I should be patient and give it time but after seeing you go out with that kid Barry I realized that a girl like you is not going to be available forever. I…uh…these are for you!” He gestured towards the three boxes. “I…uh…I wanted you to know that I made an effort. Ordered them myself,” he grinned proudly at her.

He looked so earnest and hopeful Felicity felt a terrible pang of guilt. She was used to dealing with his cocky and blasé attitude towards everything with a sarcastic quip of her own, she found herself suddenly at a loss as to how she should respond. This was not their relationship. He was supposed to be pesky and infuriatingly fun, not all vulnerable and nervous. This was terribly bad timing. The worse timing possible.

“I’m so sorry I told Barry I’d go to Trivia Night with him this Saturday. Science theme this Saturday and we couldn’t resist a good science themed trivia night. Did you know there are not many events catered for those of us who are more scientifically inclined in Star City? Everything is all clubbing and partying, for the pretty people so umm yeah…I was totally excited to go to a nerd event. That’s why I said yes. Because I like science quizzes. I really like answering science questions.” 

Felicity stared in dismay as she pinpointed the moment she crushed Oliver’s spirits. She tried to gather her wits to say something, anything but didn’t get the chance as he spoke for the both of them instead, the disappointment in his voice obvious. 

“That’s ok. You and Barry must have really hit it off to go on a second date so quickly. Don’t worry, it was stupid of me to ask. I...uh I need to go do some photocopying. Don’t need to follow me I’ll just be in the copier room. Can’t get whacked there!” He gestured towards the boxes. “I got those for you and I’d still like you to have them. Enjoy.”

With that he hightailed out of their work area leaving Felicity staring at the boxes in dismay. She lifted the lid on all the boxes and found herself staring at three identical red, stretch knit dresses with a cute little zip detail on the side and cheeky slit up the front right leg. He had bought the dresses in three sizes, what she assumed he must have guessed to be her actual size, one size above that and one size below. 

Felicity sat down on her chair and stared dejectedly at the three dresses. Oh how she missed the days at Tech Village where she went to work and came to the Foundry every night. Life was a lot less complicated back then.

***

Oliver resisted the urge to kick the photocopier machine as he sat in the empty copier room by himself, feeling slightly grateful that it was empty. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Two dates in a week. Things must be serious with young Barry he thought furiously. Oliver found himself briefly wondering if they really were going to “trivia night” or if “trivia night” was nerd code speak for kinky nerd activities. He felt a little ill at the thought of Felicity and that boy who looked like he was barely legal. Even if it really was a real trivia night, who the hell goes to trivia night for a date? Oliver pondered and realized that he wouldn’t know what to do with himself at a trivia night. Further proof that he was never going to be the right man for Felicity. She wanted someone who could geek out with her and answer science questions. Oliver had failed science at all of the three private high schools he attended. Probably failed science that Felicity had mastered when she was ten. He was never going to be the man for her.

Well that was that. He was not going to sit around like chump anymore. He hadn’t hooked up with anyone since that fateful day when he opened his eyes in the van and yanked Felicity’s mask off her face. Oliver was done waiting and persisting. This wasn’t who he is anyway. He took out his phone and proceeded to send Sara Lance a text. Sara was a good time girl. Sara was just like him, a bit of a screw up. Sarah was just the right person to drag him out of his obsession with a certain too brilliant blonde.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't panic! I know we didn't end on the most encouraging Olicity note but the next chapter is one of my favourites so just trust me okies!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!
> 
> Since last chapter ended on a somewhat depressing note and things are quite miserable on the show I thought I'd post the next chapter for you since it's already written. 
> 
> I really hope you guys like it! Haha I'm kinda freaking out because I have said this is my favourite chapter!
> 
> No updates for 2 weeks as I'm working on a fluffy epilogue for Sun and Moon! 
> 
> Thank you for reading!

Oliver liked Sara Lance a lot, always had. Sara was fun, Sara understood him and most importantly Sara was a good sport. When their affair had been discovered, culminating in a spectacular scene with Laurel (who knew Laurel had such a great arm for throwing and who knew she could be so ferocious when drunk) Oliver had boarded a jet to go into hiding, away from Laurel, away from the disappointed looks from his mother and away from his father’s wrath at yet another scandal. It was Sara who had accompanied him to bond and mull over what a pair of screw-ups they were.

Sara had never been anything but good to him, so Oliver thought he owed Sara at least dinner and clear-cut explanation as to why he needed a hook up with her. And in order for the explanation to be thorough he really had to bring up Felicity.

Oliver was a little hazy on the details as the night wore on and a lot of alcohol was consumed. He did know that he kept his wits about him and had stuck to the story of how Felicity had found him on a kerb. He also did not mention Felicity’s nighttime extra curricular activities.  He had spent most of the night showing Sara his favorite photos of Felicity, telling Sara about the things he and Felicity got up to as QC Buddies (again steering clear of all the vigilante stuff), how brilliant and infuriating Felicity was and stalking Barry on Facebook (he noticed Barry took rather a lot of photos with some girl called Iris and made a mental note to dig into this another day when he was more sober).

At one point Oliver wondered if he was coming off too obsessed and stalky as he noticed Sara staring at him strangely. He shook off these thoughts, rationalizing that he was just being honest with Sara and being honest meant explaining about Felicity and why he was so miserable so that Sara wouldn’t feel like he had led her on.  Plus as the night progressed Sara looked more amused than anything. She was making sympathetic clucking noises and agreed with him that Felicity was hot, despite looking like an angel. Oliver was just about to launch into another rant about how Barry was the worse when Sara interrupted him.

“Ollie, have you told her how you feel?” she asked.

“I did,” he replied, feeling cross at Sara for not listening properly. “Didn’t I already tell you about the three dresses I bought and how I asked her to dinner?”

“You went all Oliver Queen smooth on her and bought her a bunch of dresses. Haven’t you spent all night telling me that things like that don't impress Felicity? She won’t let you buy her lunch, why on earth would she be ok with three dresses? You’re buying her off with goods Ollie! That’s the worse thing to do.”

“She’s gonna marry Barry isn’t she? She’s going to marry Barry, hee that rhymes, and have skinny tall nerdy babies and they’ll have family trivia night every Sunday night. And I’ll be all alone.” Oliver wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol but suddenly he wanted to cry at the prospect of Felicity having Barry’s babies. Maybe he would take the high road and buy them all Ipads when the babies were old enough to use tablets.

“Ollie, focus!” Sara snapped her fingers at him impatiently. “You need to tell her how you feel. You need to make a grand gesture. You say this Barry guy likes the same thing as she does right? Well you need to beat that by making a grand gesture from the heart. None of this buying her material crap. Tell her how you feel, honestly and ask her if she thinks you have a chance with her.”

Oliver blinked. Well that was a revelation. For the past few months he’d been making passes at Felicity and teasing her but he had never sat down face to face and seriously told her how he felt. As for the dresses, that was probably a mistake. Felicity could rock a dress like no body else but she really didn’t care for material things when it came to him. She might even be offended and think he was trying to buy her. He had to fix this right away. He was going to give Felicity a grand gesture she would never forget. Barry, schmarry indeed!

“Sara Lance you are a good egg,” he beamed at Sara from across the table. “Do you mind if we call it a night. There’s somebody I need to find,” he trailed off, gesturing at the empty entrée plates.

“Not at all,” Sara beamed at him from across the table, with a glint in her eye. She looked amused. “You go for it and remember to make it memorable.”

“Memorable! Yes!” Oliver echoed glancing around to see if there was anything that could aid him in his crusade tonight. His eyes landed on the very attractive flower arrangement in the middle of the table and the breadbasket which had been largely uneaten. He motioned the waiter for the cheque and left a large sum to cover the bill, tip, bread basket and flower arrangement.    

“Goran! Take me to Felicity’s,” he called as he exited the restaurant, armed with his breadbasket and flowers while waving cheerfully at Sara.

***

Dressed in her comfy pair of pink sleep shorts (tiny barely there shorts with a cute print of watermelon wedges) and a comfy pink singlet, Felicity found herself oddly distracted as she flipped through her catalogue of shows .

Things had been rather terse with Oliver after the date debacle. To be fair Oliver had been nothing but polite to her when he returned from the copier room that afternoon. His cool politeness left her feeling slightly more vexed than she’d care to admit but she brushed the feeling aside, telling herself that she, Felicity Smoak would never in a million years start anything with Oliver Queen. She knew better than that and this was all for the best. He would probably leave her and John alone now and that was better for his overall safety too. She just needed to get used to their lack of bantering that was all. Besides nothing major had happened between them and once the dust had settled she was hopeful that they would still be friends since they did possess a very natural and easy chemistry with each other.

Focusing on the positives, Felicity tucked herself under her favourite fluffy pink blanket, armed with a bowl of mint chip ice cream and proceeded to start watching “Lost in Austen” one of her most beloved shows. After taking down The Countess, the creator and maker of Mist, Felicity and John had decided that they were going to take a well deserved break from crime, leaving all the petty criminals for SCPD to handle. John in particular had been religiously catching up with an old flame, a very pretty lady by the name of Lyla Michaels whom he refused to discuss in detail. Felicity noticed the spring in his step but didn’t press for any additional information for fear of receiving a grilling in return about Barry and Oliver.

Felicity was about halfway through her bowl of mint chip when she heard a dull THUD THUD coming from her living room window. She ignored the first two sounds, assuming that maybe a squirrel or a bat was passing by and had knocked against her property. She turned back to focus on her show when the THUD THUD resumed again. Debating whether to quickly grab her mace spray before exploring the source of the noise, her decision was made for her when she heard the words “Feeeeeeliiiiiiciiiiiiiiteeeeeeeeeee” ring out through the night air.

“Feeeeeeeeliiiiiiiiciiiiiiiiteeeeeeeeeeee,” the unmistakable voice called out again, followed by a series of dull thuds hitting her window.

Felicity groaned and made her way to her front door. There standing below her living room window was none other than Oliver Queen himself, dressed immaculately in a suit and tie, armed with a giant bread basket, the contents of which she realized, he had been utilizing to lob at her window in an effort to garner her attention.

“Feeeeeeliiiiiiiciiiiiiiteeeeee come out. I neeeeed to saaaay stuffff,” Oliver slurred, pitching what appeared to be a soft butter roll at her window, oblivious to the fact that she had opened her door and turned the lights on.

“Oliver!” Felicity whispered loudly. “Oliver Queen you stop that right now!”

“Feliciteee,” he beamed as soon as he saw her making a beeline towards him. “Felicitee you so pretteeeeee. Don’t look so mad Feliciteee I just came over to tell you how I feel.”

“I’m not mad,” Felicity assured him calmly, with the air of one talking to a petulant toddler. “Let’s just stop making this ruckus ok so we don’t wake everyone up.” She grabbed both of his shoulders and firmly guided him towards her front door, shooting Goran a small glare as he shrugged at her helplessly.

“He insisted I bring him here. I was worried he’d go home in this state and wake up Mr and Mrs Queen.” Goran at least had the decency to look slightly guilty. Felicity felt herself soften a bit. It couldn’t be easy taking care of Oliver. She suspected that Oliver was not as trouble free for Goran as he normally was for Felicity.

“Why don’t you take the car and go home tonight,” Felicity offered. “I’m due to start my weekend shift with him at 9 am tomorrow anyway. I’ll keep him out of trouble for the rest of the night and I’ll ring you to pick him up at five tomorrow before my shift ends.” Seeing his hesitation she added, “You can cover a shift for me next week. There’s not much you can do right now anyway. Oliver looks like he’s on a one man mission to harass me to death tonight.” She shook her head with disapproval at Oliver who was now nuzzling her shoulder, occasionally looking up with an idiotic grin on his face.

“Er thanks Felicity! I owe you one!” Goran knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth and with that he sprinted back to the car and drove off.

***

“Fllllissssiteeee,” Oliver grinned at her lazily as she hauled him through her front door, locking it quickly and ushering him inside.

“Flisssiteeeee need to tell you how I feel. Need to have matuuuuuure cooonversation bout it,” he continued to slurr.

“How about you have a nice long nap in my spare room and tomorrow you can tell me all about it ok,” Felicity responded soothingly guiding him down her hallway into the spare room where she had a queen sized mattress set up on the floor for the odd occasion where her mother insisted on visiting and Felicity couldn’t come up with a viable excuse.

“Need to tell you now! It important,” he whispered before dissolving into a peal of giggles. Suddenly the laughter stopped and he was completely somber.

“Barry looks like a boyband member,” he declared solemnly. “He looks like the harmless one that all the girlies scream for. You could take him home to mother. Mothers would LOVE Barry.”

Felicity was about to once again suggest that he go and have a lie down, when suddenly out of nowhere, Oliver burst into song, causing Felicity to jump, startled by the sudden drunken singing. There had been no warning he was going to sing.

 

I long to see the sunlight in your hair  
And tell you time and time again how much I care  
Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow  
Hello, I've just got to let you know  
Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do  
Are you somewhere feeling lonely? Or is Barry loving you?  
Tell me how to win your heart, for I haven't got a clue  
But let me start by saying I

 

“Come on Mister, that’s enough excitement for tonight,” Felicity cut off his singing as she pushed him into the spare room. He turned around and beamed at her before promptly falling face first onto the mattress.

Grunting with effort she rolled him over on his back and proceeded to pull off his shoes and socks. He smiled dreamily, his eyes now closed as she pulled his suit jacket off his body and took his tie off.

“That will have to do for tonight,” she muttered as he snuggled down into the mattress, a dopey grin on his face. Oh well at least he seems content Felicity thought to herself, a small smile gracing her lips as she turned off the light and closed the spare room door.

***

Oliver woke up feeling rather warm and fuzzy. He vaguely recalled having too much to drink last night and was a bit perturbed to find himself feeling oddly comfortable and well rested.  He stared at the unfamiliar sunlit room, the brightly patterned pink and purple sheets and pillowcase and wracked his brains to work out where the hell he was.

He recalled alcohol, a fair bit of alcohol actually, dinner and Sara. Oh sh@t! Had he hooked up with Sara again? Burying his face in his hands he desperately tried to remember what he had gotten up to the night before. A brisk rap at his door interrupted his train of thought.

“Come in,” he called automatically, still having no recollection of what had happened or why he was here.

His jaw dropped. In sailed Felicity merrily, carrying a tray with various items on it. She was wearing a buttery yellow sundress, her hair in loose waves bobbing on her shoulders. She looked like a little daffodil.

“Good Morning sleepyhead,” she greeted him cheerily, placing the tray down on the floor beside the mattress. “I decided to let you sleep in. You looked like you needed it and you put on quite a performance last night.”

“Did we? You mean you and I? You mean we….” he rambled incoherently, trying his best to use his words and not quite succeeding. He was going to jump into Star City River if something had happened between them and he didn’t remember it.

“You wish,” Felicity scoffed at him with a chuckle. “What kind of girl do you take me for? It’s going to take a lot more than a drunken declaration before anything happens. You haven’t even taken me out to dinner.”

Staring at the amused look on her face, suddenly flashes of memories returned to him. He vaguely recalled a breadbasket and there had been singing. Oliver gulped, his singing was the performance she had been referring to.

“Cheer up, it’s not all that bad!” She sat down on the mattress next to him and gave him a pat on the shoulder, still sporting her amused smile. “You have a lovely singing voice.”

“Felicity I’m so sor..” he began but she waved a hand to stop him. “Don’t worry about it. It was very amusing. Can’t say I have had a guy throw bread rolls at my window and then serenade me with Lionel Ritchie before. It was a unique experience!”

She beamed at him, her eyes twinkling. They were a sparkling baby blue today. Whatever he had done it couldn’t have been that bad if it made her sparkle like that.

“I made you breakfast,” she gestured to the tray on the floor. “Or rather I attempted to make you breakfast. Are you a fussy eater? Cuz I burnt the pancakes on one side but usually I just slice any of the really burnt bits off and it’s kind of alright.” She poked a dark brown, rubbery looking pancake suspiciously with the fork on the tray before continuing thoughtfully, “I’m not much of a cook. Could never really work out why since it’s all science and science I am great at.”

Oliver feeling relieved that she wasn’t angry and having had enough time to process that fact that he hadn’t done anything to majorly screw up, seized the opportunity at hand. Draping one arm around her shoulder he gave it a squeeze and said, “How about I make us non burnt pancakes? It’s the least I can do to repay you for letting me crash here last night.”

“You can cook?” she asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

“Way better than this,” he replied. “Come on, you taste for yourself. Can’t be any worse than this.”

***

“These are really good,” Felicity marveled after she had swallowed her mouthful of pancakes. Who knew Oliver could cook. These pancakes were fluffy and golden brown, a stark contrast to the burnt frisbees she had produced earlier.

“I was a terror growing up and my nannies would often quit on us without notice. Raisa used to keep an eye on me whenever I was  between nannies and her way of keeping me under control was to put me to work in the kitchen,” Oliver answered between mouthfuls.

“So what’s it like being raised by nannies? Did you see your parents a lot?” Felicity asked, curious to find out more about his childhood which she now realized was far from idyllic, despite the privileges and money.

“Some were nicer than others. Mostly they were just professional. I can’t say it was bad or good either way. They did their job but at the end of the day it was a job. I saw my parents at dinner time on most nights and we attempted to do family activities together sometimes on the weekend with a nanny in tow to manage us.” He gave a shrug. “It’s kinda funny actually. After I almost got expelled from Starling Prep they paid a lot more attention to me and I was really on their radar when I got kicked out of four colleges and regularly featured on TMZ.”

“Sounds like they were a bit more hands on with you the older you grew,” Felicity smiled softly at him. “Do you think you did all that stuff for their attention?”  
   
“Nah. My ego was just out of control. I bulldozed my way through life. Did anything and got everything I wanted. And to be perfectly honest I liked it that way. I could sit here and tell you I was a tortured soul but I wasn’t. I was just a selfish jerk who felt good leading a sinful lifestyle. By the time the Laurel debacle rolled around I would have given anything for my parents to stop diverting their attention towards me and for them to back off.”

Felicity perked up with interest when he mentioned the Laurel incident. She had been privy to the spectacle through the eyes of the media and sitting here with him, she suddenly wanted to know what his side of the story was.

“What’s your side of the story?” she asked him, resting her chin on the back of her hands, gazing at him with her big baby blue eyes.

“You want to know my side? Like it isn’t all my fault like the media reported?” he asked incredulously.

“There are always three sides to every story Oliver. Yours, Laurel’s and the truth. I fell asleep one night with TMZ on and I caught glimpses of the media’s take on it. As your friend I want to hear your side of the story if you feel comfortable telling me. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s ok too.” She gave him a gentle smile, telling him that she didn’t expect him to answer, that she would respect his decision either way.

“Honestly I don’t know. Everyone wanted Laurel to fix me. Tame me. Turn me into a model citizen they all hope I could be. Hell even I wanted Laurel to fix me. I think that’s why I kept coming back to her after cheating god knows how many times. I think there was some part of me that hoped one day I’d suddenly love her enough, settle down and stop being the screw up everyone thought I was. When it blew up beyond repair I was so relieved. ” He studied Felicity’s face as he spoke, watching for any signs of judgment or scorn. There was none. She looked…understanding.

“What about you?” he asked. He knew her well enough to know that despite her endless chatter she seldom gave anything away about herself. Here was his one chance to learn something about the enigma that was Felicity Smoak. “What was your childhood like? You’ve never talk about your parents.”

She shrugged and stayed silent for a few seconds before responding. “There’s not much to tell really. My dad left when I was seven. I left for school one morning expecting to come home and tinker with some electronics together and he wasn’t there when I got home. My mum told me he had left us. He never came back.”

Suddenly a lot of things about her became so clear. Oliver reached out for her hand from across the counter, giving it a light squeeze. “I’m sorry,” he murmured as he processed this new piece of information he had learnt about her.

“Don’t be,” she replied nonchalantly. “That was a long time ago. When I was fifteen I found out that my mother had sent him away. He was involved in some shady dealings with unsavory people and she didn’t want him bringing that into my life. So she forced him to leave, letting me wonder for a good chunk of my childhood if I was the reason that he left.”

He desperately wanted to cross over the kitchen counter and put his arms around her as she sat there rigidly with a far away look in her eyes. Oliver continued to hold onto her hand, lacing their fingers together. She didn’t pull away. She recovered from her trance and continued speaking.

“You know he could have come back. There were so many instances when he could have made contact over the years. I was at MIT for a few years and was long out of home by then. If he had wanted to make contact he could have. But at the end of the day I guess I just didn’t mean much to him.”

Oliver fought the urge to leap over, to take her into his arms and tell her how special she was, how much she meant to him. But he knew it was all too much and too soon. It wasn’t just his reputation as Oliver Queen that made her skittish. It was his reputation, coupled by her history of abandonment and mistrust that was going to lay big hurdles in their path. Oliver felt a sense of relief in knowing this. It was beyond his control if Felicity deemed him personally to be unworthy of her affections. But if she was holding back on them because of some deep-seated issues of her own he was more than willing to give it time, to prove to her that he could be trusted and make her see that he thought the world of her.   

“How are things with your mother?” he asked, taking the opportunity to delve deeper into her personal life since Felicity was in a rare mood to open up.  

“My mother? She’s my mother I guess. She worked three jobs to put me through school so that I could get my full scholarship to MIT. We’re just very different people…” Felicity trailed off.

“Gawd this is depressing! Let’s just stop talking about our pitiful youths. So are you going to tell me why you decided to serenade me last night?” Felicity twinkled at him as if their entire previous conversation had not taken place. She was so good at burying the hurt, Oliver thought. She flitted around like a ray of sunshine.

“I threw a fit over you going on another date with Barry, called up Sara Lance for a hook up but didn’t even make it through dinner as I ended up getting wasted midway and decided it was a great idea to come and declare my feelings for you,” he answered sheepishly.

“Oh Oliver,” she sighed, looking both exasperated and amused at the same time.

“So in the interests of sharing and being truthful, how are things going with young Barry?” he asked, suddenly feeling bold. It was amazing how easy it had become to say whatever was on his mind now that everything was laid out on the table. There really was no point in skirting around things when you had already shouted outside someone’s house and hurled bread rolls at their window.

“First of all he’s not that young. He’s my age and I resent you harping on about how young he is because it makes me think you’re saying that I look old which is never a good thing to imply to a lady Oliver! I thought you had more game than that.” She poked out her tongue childishly at him and pulled a face, rendering him unable to do anything but internally rejoice at how damn cute she was.

“Secondly I think Barry and I are better off as friends. That’s why I agreed to Trivia Night you know. We are two friends who genuinely enjoy scientific trivia. Although you probably think it’s code for something raunchy knowing you.”

“You friend zoned Barry?” Oliver asked, barely able to contain the glee in his voice. Harmless vanilla Barry had been friend zoned! There was a God after all.

“Barry doesn’t know it yet but I think he’s in love with his childhood best friend Iris. I see this look in his eyes when he talks about her. They grew up together, have a lot of history together. Kinda like you and Laurel.”

She paused for a bit before wrinkling her nose adorably as she continued, “Good history though, without all the cheating and sister swapping. Hmm maybe that was a bad example. Anyway the point is I think they are going to be The One for each other and I’ve no interest in wasting my time as a temporary romance until they work out that they're in love.”

“You got this all from one date with Barry,” Oliver asked incredulously. He had his work cut out for him if she was ditching clean cut perfectly harmless Barry over some notion that he was intended for someone else.

“No it’s not just that,” Felicity sighed. “There was just no heat between Barry and I.”

“Excuse me?”

“No heat. No zing! Even without the Iris factor I couldn’t see us do anything but hold hands and grin at each other for the rest of our days,” Felicity shrugged.

“So what is it that you want exactly?” Oliver queried, mentally taking notes of the conversation.

“I don’t know…. I want someone who I can trust but who makes me feel butterflies whenever I’m around them. Someone who will always be there for me at the end of the day but who makes my blood boil a bit. Someone who makes me want to jump them and occasionally tie me up and slam me against the headboard.” She was gesticulating dramatically not realizing that she was on a roll and revealing far more than she probably wanted to.

He spluttered on a mouthful of juice at her last comment, coughing and choking loudly while wondering if she had thrown it in deliberately to mess with him.

“You…headboard…. tied up?” he squeaked when he finally managed to stop coughing.

“Amongst other things. Don’t judge Oliver. You never know what people are like behind closed doors. Don’t be fooled by the angelic librarian look. I…OMG! Why am I even discussing this with you!” her eyes widened in horror as she brought her hands to her face and hid behind them. “It’s not fair. You prodded me for information when my defences were down.”

“Just one more question,” he coaxed shamelessly. “Since you’ve revealed so much about yourself already I just need you to answer one more question.”

She groaned, her hands still covering her face. She peered out at him from a gap between two fingers and nodded.

“You said Barry was pudding. So if Barry is pudding what am I?” He knew it was a ridiculous question but he just had to find out.

She removed her hands from her face, sat up straight and smiled at him, a dazzling, warm, sunny smile with a hint of mischief.

“Mint Chip ice cream,” she replied.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys! Your update! Sorry it took a while! Been super busy!
> 
> Now that I am inspired to write More than Blue again (and have a plan!) I will alternate between the stories which means this one won't get updated as frequently as you're used to. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you for reading!

Felicity gnawed absent-mindedly on a bread stick as she waited for Oliver to arrive, a million butterflies fluttering in her tummy. She really should lay off the bread she thought. She was going to bloat and the little red dress that Oliver bought her was not going to conceal a potbelly.

As she waited, Felicity wondered for the millionth time whether agreeing to this dinner was a bad idea. They had turned a corner that night Oliver showed up outside her house. There was something between them, something that could not be quashed no matter how many times she tried to brush those feelings aside. Oliver had found a new confidence and had patiently but insistently sent a very clear message to her that he wasn’t going to give up. It seemed only natural to take this next step and see what was between them, if anything substantial at all. However there was a part of her, the scared little girl that wanted to run from him to avoid getting hurt. He was Oliver Queen after all. He went through women the way she went through nail polish. Girls like Felicity did not get involved with men like Oliver Queen. She was supposed to pick someone safe and secure. 

“You look really beautiful,” an unmistakable voice whispered against her ear. Felicity jumped, chastising herself for not noticing that Oliver had snuck up on her. She was supposed to be the vigilante with the alert senses and good prowling skills. Oliver’s training with John must be going well if he could sneak up on her like that. Felicity made a mental note to find more time for training. She wasn’t going to let Oliver outdo her. John would never let her live it down.

“Hi,” she smiled shyly, her cheek tingling where he had placed a soft little kiss on it just before he took a seat opposite her. He seemed different today. Confident and self-assured, less like the ratbag Oliver she was used to teasing every day. Yet he wasn’t cocky like when she first met him either. The Oliver seated opposite her was…sweet. Felicity could not help but swoon a little bit as she admired his fine form in the charcoal gray suit and pale blue shirt that was doing wonders setting off the colour of his eyes. 

“This is weird,” she muttered. “Doesn’t it feel weird you and I? Here? All datey? I mean I shouldn’t make a big deal of it since you and I eat lunch like every day so this is really just another meal. The first meal that I’m going to let you pay for but really since it’s my birthday and technically I work very hard keeping you safe and out of trouble I should be able to accept a birthday meal without feeling funny about this. Kind of like a company bonus yes? Or wait not a bonus but like when they have those functions and you go out and charge the dinner on a corporate card. ” She took in a large breath of air and reached for her water glass, taking a big gulp of water. 

“Felicity, I have slaved for months to get you to agree to dinner. This is a date. No backing out of it now. It’s definitely a date. The first of many I hope,” he beamed at her before reaching over to grab her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Felicity could not help but smile back at him, her face feeling very warm. Her whole body felt warm and hyper aware of him, of them. 

*** 

Somehow they both managed to stop grinning and staring at each other like two idiots long enough to order their food. As soon as the waiter had left with their orders, Oliver deposited a box in front of her. 

“What’s this?” she asked, running her fingers over the pretty pink wrapping paper.

“Birthday present,” Oliver smiled. “Open it! Open it!”

His glee was so genuine and infectious Felicity did not bother protesting about the present. Instead she ripped off the wrapping paper excitedly to find a clear box divided into little compartments, each compartment housing a lipstick in every shade of the colour pink possible, in all the high end brands that Felicity did not dare buy for herself. Brands that Felicity sometimes glanced at longingly on her shopping trips but could never justify spending that kind of money on make up. There were warm pinks, cool pinks, bright shocking pinks, soft muted pinks, dusty rose pinks, vivid pinks. Every shade of pink imaginable. 

“I went to every counter of every brand and picked out every shade of pink I could find. By myself! I didn’t even bring Thea because I wanted it to be my very own effort. I even drew all these lines on my arms to test the colours. The sales assistants had a field day with me. One tried to convince me to buy a whole range of lotions and potions but it just got too scary so I stopped at the lipsticks. I hope you like them. Pink reminds me of you and I see you wearing different shades all the time I thought you might have fun with these.” 

His eyes shone as he spoke. He was so handsome tonight, so in control of himself and masculine yet he gazed at her with the air of a devoted puppy. The contrast made Felicity giddy and before she knew it, she walked over to his side of the table, threw her arms around his shoulders and gave him a hearty kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you, that was very sweet,” she said quietly. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.” 

“I’ll sweep you off your feet if you’ll let me Ms. Smoak,” he responded, half tempted to pull her closer onto his lap, half worried that she would deck him. You never knew with Felicity and she did have a wicked right hook. It was better to be safe than sorry. 

However he didn’t need to worry about what would happen next. Their little moment was interrupted when the restaurant suddenly plunged into darkness. 

***

“Oliver,” Felicity whispered. “We have to get out of here.” The power had gone out for a good twenty minutes and according to John’s messages this power outage had claimed the entire city, not just their particular restaurant or block. Felicity felt a sense of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. This didn’t feel like a random power outage and furthermore in her two years of living in Star City, there had never been an incident where the entire city lost its power. Something else was at play here and she had to get to the bottom of it.

“The entire city has lost power, where would we go?”

“John and I have a back up generator in our space. It’s only a few blocks from here. I can turn on the high beams and drive us there. Something is off Oliver. I’m going to need my computers to work this out.” 

She was pressed against him in the darkness, whispering into his ear as quietly as possible in order to keep their conversation private. Fortunately there were a lot of agitated customers in the restaurant and their conversation could not be heard under all the complaints and cursing from the other diners.

“I’ve always imagined you whispering in my ear under different circumstances,” Oliver grumbled. “Non platonic circumstances. None of this *the city might be attacked* business.”

“Come on let’s go Oliver.” 

She swiped her box of lipsticks off the table (She wasn’t going to let fifty high end lippies go to waste, city under attack or not, a girl had to have priorities. Besides the thought of him picking each one out himself was too precious), grabbed his hand and guided him through the darkness out of the restaurant where she had parked her Mini, thanking her lucky stars she had told Goran yesterday that she’d take his shift tonight during and after her date with Oliver. 

“This must be karma,” Oliver whined as Felicity pulled out of the parking lot. “My dating track record has been less than stellar in the past, the cosmos is punishing me by ruining my date with you.” 

“It’s not the cosmos Oliver. Its more likely some criminal who is up to something nefarious.” Seeing his poor, sad, disappointed face she pinched his cheek and added, “I promise we’ll have a do over date after I sort this out.”

***

“Any new developments John,” Felicity rushed in and booted up her computers, rejoicing a little in the fact that John had been paranoid enough to insist that they install their own generator in the lair. It had been one of those things she and John had argued heatedly about. She had been opposed to spending the money on a site that they did not own. John understood and agreed with the sentiment but being incredibly paranoid he had worn her down with his insistence and today it looked like that generator was finally going to deliver on the money they spent on it.

“Nothing so far. City’s been out of power for more than half an hour now.” John paused and observed Felicity’s outfit, shooting her an intrigued look. “You look nice tonight. Hot date?”

“You could say that,” Felicity responded off handedly as she began to type fervently, digging her way into the city’s power grid to see if anyone else had stopped by tonight.

“With him,” John cocked his head at Oliver who had helped himself to a drink from the fancy new fridge he had supplied them with (his contribution to joining the team he insisted) and was now kicking back on the recliner chaise lounge that he had brought into the lair, one of the many things he had supplied to transform what was a fairly modest space into something that resembled the combined lounge and study of one of the Real Housewives on TV. John and Felicity had not protested too much. It was nice to come into an immaculately decorated space. Oliver had even managed to find a giant potted fern, insisting that they needed something green and alive to keep their spirits up.

Oliver was fast becoming a permanent fixture in the lair, choosing to spend most of his spare time down there either:

*Studying for his Business Administration course (Felicity approved of this as she thought this would serve him well with his club venture next year and was extra nice to him on these days), 

*Training with John (Felicity did not approve of this as she feared he’d try to wheedle himself onto a mission next and whilst she had deemed it ok for Oliver to keep their company, engaging in vigilante activities with them was where she drew the line)

*Generally hanging around to try and heckle or charm Felicity 

“Yes with him,” Felicity replied, suddenly finding herself blushing as she continued to type.

“So that’s why you refused my offer to take both of you out to celebrate your birthday tonight. I’m hurt. The two of you carrying on behind my back and excluding me.” He delivered this in his usual calm even tone. 

If she did not know John Diggle as well as she did, she would have been lured into thinking that he was actually upset. Instead she swatted him playfully and laughed, “The city is under attack! Stop teasing me. As soon as I find out who’s behind this you need to suit up and give them a fright.”

“Do you have any inkling who it may be?” John asked, peering behind her shoulder. Oliver had left the couch to join him and now she had both her boys perched behind each shoulder.

“Not yet but I have laid a trap for them. From my observation of your average mastermind of a hack like this, they don’t usually do this kind of thing without engaging in a bit of drama.” 

As if on cue the TV screen switched on, power temporarily restored and a broad cast was displayed on the screen. 

A static screen appeared followed by an electronic voice, threatening the citizens of Star City that this hack of the Grid was just the beginning and to be aware of more destruction coming. The message threatened hacks to the banking system and the stock market. It was a basic show of power designed to instill fear into the average person.

“BINGO,” Felicity shouted, pumping her fist and muttering to herself just as the message ended. “I’ve got you now. You are good but no match for me my little amateur hackers.”

Her victory was short-lived and suddenly her face turned a deathly hue of white as she stared blankly at the screen, suddenly looking like she was in a state of suspended animation.

“Felicity, what’s wrong?” John asked, concern evident in his voice. Oliver moved closer to her side and started rubbing circles on her back.

“I really thought that past was behind me. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe he’s back,” Felicity muttered, not paying attention to either of the worried men near her.

“Felicity who’s back?” John asked, a little more firmly this time.

“He’s back. He vanished and now he’s back. With my virus! I put in something to render it useless to anyone but me but looked like he managed to get it working after all these years and now he’s using it to cause destruction and mayhem just like he always said he would. The bastard. That was one mistake I never thought I’d have to revisit again,” Felicity ranted to herself, still paying no attention to her surroundings.

“Felicity, you need to breath. Breath and focus and start from the beginning.” John pulled a chair next to her and held one of her hands, giving it a gentle squeeze. 

Felicity noticed that Oliver had also pulled a chair over and was still rubbing her back, flashing her a slightly confused but encouraging look as if to assure her than everything would be ok. It was that look that allowed her to ground herself. Felicity took a deep breath and tried to relay her story as calmly as possible. 

“It may come as a surprise to you boys but I wasn’t always my cheerful pink loving self. When I first started college I had a real chip on my shoulder. I was really angry at my mum for lying to me all those years and I made some questionable choices both in terms of the company I kept and my personal presentation.” 

She took another breath before continuing, “During my first year I was really naïve but thought I knew it all. I hooked up with Cooper Seldon, a senior who was older than me. Cooper was nerdy and seemed sweet. I fell for him pretty quickly. We had a lot in common and both liked coding. We’d spend all weekend coding while others went out and got wasted. It was during one of these coding sessions that I created the Super Virus. A virus that could infect any system or database in the world, Banks, Government agencies, corporations, giving the user access whatever system it had infected and then delete itself. I showed Cooper and he thought it was brilliant. He wanted to use it to hack into the banking system and delete all the student loans. Now as rebellious as I was, I knew this was wrong so I refused.”

“I take it you guys didn’t see eye to eye after that,” John asked quietly.

“No that’s the thing. He gave up pretty quickly, agreeing with me that it was a stupid idea. I sort of believed him as there was a part of me that wanted to believe that he really did love me, but due to my enormous trust issues which you’re both familiar with, I decided to modify the code. I still kept a copy of the virus code but I had added layers and layers to the code so that it no longer resembled my original work and I was the only person who could make sense of it.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad so far. Your sensible self reigns supreme again,” Oliver chimed in. Felicity gave him a small smile in spite of herself. 

“A week later Cooper vanished with my laptop never to be seen again. Now I was pretty paranoid and had always made sure nothing on that laptop could be traced back to me so I was safe on that front.”

“Rule number one of being a hacker!” Oliver supplied helpfully. 

Felicity couldn’t help but grin at him fondly. “Aww you do listen to my rants.”

“Guys,” John shot them both a look as if to say “Is this the time for flirting?”

“Sorry,” Felicity mumbled sheepishly, her cheeks turning pink. Suddenly getting chastised for flirting with Oliver by John seemed more mortifying than relaying the tale of her misspent youth.

“I kept my eyes and ears opened for any chatter or signs of the virus but it never made an appearance so I assumed he couldn’t bypass my modifications. As it never became an issue I filed Cooper away into my *List of mistakes I will never revist* and all was good until he resurfaced today, obviously having never grown out of his angry hacktivist phase.”

“Can you crash this virus?” Oliver asked hopefully. “Or did you make it completely unbreachable because you are crazy super smart?”

Felicity smiled despite the predicament they were in. Oliver had a way of making her smile. “I did make the virus unbreachable but that was the effort of my seventeen year old self. I’d like to think that I’m older and wiser and a better programmer now. I’m pretty confident that I can destroy this virus and put it back in its box.”

“Then let’s get to work. What are you waiting for?” John asked, ever the sensible one.

Felicity swung her chair around and grabbed Oliver’s hand, trying to wrap her small petite hands around his large one. “As soon as I destroy the virus Cooper is going to know that it’s me who did it. Now I have no idea what he is like now but judging by that message and the cyber attack on the city I don’t think he qualifies as a nice guy and will most likely be hunting me down for some sort of retribution.”

“But John will stop him,” Oliver chimed in, sensing that he was not going to like what she was about to say.

“Yes John will stop him once we work out where he is but before he’s behind bars there is a good chance that he’ll go after me and I don’t want you seen with me Oliver. I don’t want you to be caught in all of this. Fond of you as I am, it was probably a mistake to get you involved with us. Can you take a short holiday somewhere until this is over? Take Goran with you and go somewhere. Preferably overseas for a week or two.”

“You’re fond of me?” Oliver beamed at her, purposely ignoring John who was rolling his eyes rudely. Felicity just admitted that she was fond of him. He really didn’t care how high John rolled his eyeballs.

“That was only part of my speech that registered with you wasn’t it?” Felicity sighed.

“Yup!” Oliver responded. His long awaited date had already been ruined by some looney tunes ex boyfriend. Oliver was taking a win where he can.

“Oliver I’m being serious here. I have no idea what Cooper will do in retaliation so you need to stay away from me and stay safe until we catch him.”

“Goran is bloody useless and I’m not taking off on a vacation when some insane ex of yours is hell bent on destroying our city. What am I going to do? Go to Hawaii, get a tan and then come back and ask you for a second date after leaving you here in danger with John to save the city.” 

When he put it that way she had to admit he had a point, however her number one priority was to keep him safe. 

“I can’t have you running around everywhere with me while my crazy ex is on the loose Oliver,” Felicity sighed exasperatedly, rubbing her temples. Really he was being impossible.

“Guys, cool it. How about you call in sick for the next week Felicity. Hack and get yourself a note for chicken pox or measles,” John tapped Felicity gently on the shoulder before turning his attention to Oliver. 

“You! You’re going to put in a leave request for the rest of the week to study at home for your Business Administration course under the watchful eye of Goran. That way you are out of trouble and not linked with Felicity. Felicity in the meantime can work on destroying the virus and tracking down her crazy ex. Everyone happy?”

“Who’s going to take care of Felicity?” The concern in Oliver’s voice made the butterflies in her tummy flutter around rampantly again. 

“Felicity can take care of herself,” John replied firmly. “I’ll keep an eye on her at her apartment at night.”

“I’m still not liking the sound of this,” Oliver muttered feeling quite distressed at the prospect of spending a week away from Felicity. However he also knew that he was outvoted and no matter how much he protested they were going to disregard his opinion anyway, having operated together for so long like a well oiled machine. 

He pushed his chair out dejectedly and got up to make his way to the chaise when Felicity grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards her. Suddenly she was on her tippy toes, her hands cupping his face and she was kissing him, a soft, sweet, yet slightly bruising kiss. She tasted like strawberries and passion. It was a kiss that yielded so much promise. The promise that after this ordeal was over they would become something more. It sooth and inflamed him at the same time. She pulled away reluctantly, pressing her forehead against his and whispered “Stay safe for me okay?”

Oliver had kissed and been kissed by many, yet this was a kiss that even Oliver was unfamiliar with. It was heady and sweet and everything he imagined Felicity to be, times a thousand more. He couldn’t help himself as he pulled her flush towards him and now it was his turn to kiss her with abandon, parting her lips gently so that his tongue could slide inside and meet hers, the contact electrifying them both, he could feel her tremble in his arms.

“Guys,” John barked sternly, making them both jump and detach themselves in shock. “Keep it out of the lair and keep it away from me.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Lovely People!!!!
> 
> I'm back with another update! We are almost done with this story! I've enjoyed writing it so much, I'll be a bit sad to finish up! I've loved reading your comments each update and am glad you guys have enjoyed it so far! 
> 
> Ok now I am going to shamelessly plug another story that I wrote! I wrote this for Valentine's Day so if you haven't read it yet please do give it a go in case you might like it! It's an AU One shot with our favourite couple! 
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/9714242

“Felicity, for the record I don’t like this,” John muttered as Felicity pulled over in front of his house. 

“I know, I’ll get a bigger car when we have more money one day,” Felicity quipped, smiling at his attempt to tuck himself in to the backseat, like a mime squeezing into a box. 

“Not the time for jokes Felicity,” John was not amused. Going out in the field together was one thing but setting her up to be bait was another. “Surely you can find a way to track him without you being a sitting duck.”

“The moment I shut down that virus I became a sitting duck. At lease this way I control when and where he comes for me. I’m not going to waist my time looking over my shoulder and worrying about whether Oliver has decided to ditch Goran to find me. This will draw Cooper out quickly.”

“So this is about Oliver?” John asked, giving her a knowing look. Only John Diggle could sit squashed in the back seat of a Mini and still look dignified and judgmental.

Felicity sighed; she was too tired to argue anymore. Her past had suddenly come back to haunt her, threatening her city and possibly the man she was about to start a new beginning with. 

“John I have always respected your judgment. I even took a job at QC because I know you love me and want the best future for me. So I am asking you this one time to let me make the call.” She couldn’t help but smirk a bit cheekily as she added, “Besides, I wouldn’t be worrying about Oliver right now if you hadn’t insisted I apply for the internship at QC.”

“You’ll have comms on at all times?” John asked, still disgruntled but resigned to following her plan. 

“I promise! But you need to trust that I can take care of myself. I promise I will alert you for help if I need it but I need you to focus on those Armour trucks. The virus accessed the servers at Star City National Bank so I’m certain that Cooper and whoever he’s working with knows their route for cash delivery.” 

“I will come and get you at the first sign of trouble.”

“Cheer up John,” Felicity tried her best to put him at ease. “Last time we had a big mission we got shot up by the Triad remember? It was raining bullets!”

“Don’t wish for it to be worse Felicity,” John warned as he exited the car. He huddled back in to give her a hug. “You take care of yourself and remember everything we’ve covered in training!” 

***

They came for her sooner than she had predicted. Felicity was ready but the prompt timing of her abduction left her slightly worried that she was dealing with something a lot more sinister than she had expected. So Cooper had finally gone full blown evil. 

In hindsight she shouldn’t have expected anything less. She was fascinated with Cooper in her youth but there had always been something about him that inherently rang alarm bells within her. Her distrust in him ultimately went beyond the fact that she was abandoned by her father. It did not stem from her personal issues, but rather with what she thought he was capable of and as young and stupid as she was, she must have sensed the malevolence in his nature. 

Felicity watched him quietly as he waved his gun at her, threatening her with all manner of things if she didn’t obey his orders to re activate the virus and give him full control of it again. Cooper, during his eye bulging, neck vein popping rant had revealed to her that his cronies were currently in the process of trying to rob three Armour trucks which were transporting newly minted notes to Star City National Bank. She also knew that it was only a matter of time before John would deal with the Armour vehicle situation. She was inclined not to retaliate against Cooper yet. He was cold and violent, but the arrogance that was such an inherent part of his nature made him sloppy. As far as she could tell he had confidently assumed that no one knew of his plans to rob the Armour trucks and that Felicity was too stupid or vacant to check and see which servers the virus had accessed, despite disabling it. This condescension, which had also been prevalent while she was dating him, irritated her immensely and she longed to wipe the arrogant smirk off his face but Felicity knew she couldn’t take action yet. She didn’t want Cooper changing any of his plans.

“Do you know what the worse thing is Felicity? What the absolute worse thing is?” Cooper raged at her.

“No but I’m sure you’ll tell me soon enough,” Felicity rolled her eyes at him.

“When you disabled the Super Virus so quickly I was impressed, I thought to myself *that’s my girl*. I thought maybe it was your way if flirting with me. You obviously still had the skills and I thought that maybe you were smarter now and saw things clearly, you would join me baby and we could be the Bonnie and Clyde we were always meant to be.”

“Lord help me,” Felicity muttered under her breath rolling her eyes so hard she was suddenly afraid that her mother’s childhood threat would come true and that she’d be permanently cross eyed.

Cooper took no notice of her mocking. He was far too engrossed with berating her. “Imagine my disappointment when I did my due diligence on you and found that you were a good for nothing sell out corporate drone, working for Queens Consolidated and banging that idiot play boy Oliver Queen.”

“Geez imagine my disappointment when I realized you were an evil criminal,” Felicity snarked back acidly. 

“I see you’ve still got that old fire in you babe.” He grabbed her hair roughly, yanking her around to face him, his breath warm on her face. For a moment Felicity was tempted to take out his eye with her new little gadget she had been dying to play with but managed to stop herself in time. She shrugged him off and pasted a bored look on her face, waiting for him to make the next move. 

Suddenly the door slammed open and a goon walked in, dragging a disheveled Oliver with him.

“Found him trying to climb up the fire escape,” the goon announced. 

A nasty smile spread over Cooper’s face. “Well, well look what we have here. I thought I was going to have a hard time breaking you Felicity but suddenly it appears that I’ve got leverage!”

***

“Felicity please don’t be mad,” were the first words uttered by Oliver as Felicity zeroed in on him with a thunderous look. Suddenly the goon that had him in a death grip and Felicity’s murderous armed ex seemed like small fry compared to the furious five foot five slip of a woman standing in front of him. She looked like she was about to smack him and not in a kinky way either. If they made it out of this alive Felicity was going to kill him anyway. So much for him trying to play hero and save her. 

“You could have fallen and broken your neck Mister!” she declared, using her very loud voice at him. The idiot, the bloody idiot had tried to come and save her! By climbing the fire escape! Not to mention he had now foiled her plans and she was going to have to get them both out of here not just herself. 

“I wanted to save you,” he replied helplessly. 

“You were supposed to keep yourself safe, for me.” Her toned softened considerably and she was gazing at him with a mix of exasperation and affection.

“Sorry to disrupt you lovebirds but as cute as the heart eyes are I need you to fix that virus Felicity or I will put a bullet into his pretty but presumably quite empty skull.” Cooper grabbed Oliver and handcuffed him to the back of a chair roughly, pointing his gun at Oliver’s temple. He motioned for the goon to leave and stay on guard outside. 

“Tick tock Felicity. I haven’t got all day. Do as I ask or I will put bullet holes into his pretty face.”

“I’ll do what you want but you touch one hair on his head and we’ll all go down in flames together,” Felicity snarled back at him before settling in front of the bank of computers where they were held captive. She just needed to stall for a bit more. She cracked her knuckles and began to pretend to work on the virus. 

***

“Felicity I will put a bullet into his face if you keep trying to screw with me. I know you can hack much faster than this so I’m going to give you another 15 minutes before I put a bullet through his knee to motivate you.”

Felicity stopped typing, swung her chair around and stared at Cooper with a cool, frosty gaze. “You know what Cooper, I’ve decided I’m not going to sit here and listen to your threats anymore. So I’m just going to stop coding.”

“You crazy bitch I will maim him,” Cooper shouted at her, his face growing redder by the minute. He was even angrier than she remembered. She remembered him having a massive chip on his shoulder but it seemed like he had grown even more unstable over the years.

“No Cooper. You will not do that because you need me to fix that code. You will let him go and when he is safely deposited outside of a police station I will insert that one line of code you so badly need to re activate my virus.”

Cooper let out a mocking hollow laugh. “You’re prettier as a blond but certainly more stupid Felicity. What makes you think you have any bargaining power over me?”

“Because I don’t trust you Cooper and I know you’re going to kill us as soon as I give you that code. So I’m giving you a choice. Either you bury two bodies and never have access to that code again or you can let Oliver go and I’ll re activate my precious virus for you.”

Cooper paused for a few moments and Felicity could see his brain ticking. He was considering it. He had no beef with Oliver beyond using him as a bargaining chip and here Felicity was offering him a chance to use Oliver to achieve his goals. It would have all gone over perfectly well had her idiot Oliver not opened his mouth.

“Don’t do it Felicity! He’ll kill you! And I’m not going anywhere without you ever! Do you hear me you jackass psychopath! I’m not leaving her! You can shoot me in the knees and punch my lights out. I might scream like a baby because I’m a wuss but I’m not going to leave her! I’m not leaving you Feliciteeeeeeeeeee,” Oliver bellowed passionately and Felicity let out an audible groan, shaking her head and shooting daggers at him. There was no doubt about his feelings for her but she wished he hadn’t picked this particular moment to demonstrate his devotion. 

“Oliver!” she hissed, still glaring at him, willing him to shut up so as to not set Cooper off. She almost had Cooper. His beef was ultimately with her and he would get satisfaction thinking he was going to gain access to her code and get to kill her as well. There was a very good chance he was willing to let Oliver go first if the loyal fool would shut up for a moment and not aggravate him any further.

“I’m NEVER leaving you Felicity! NEVER!!!! Hey you asshole! You hear that! You torture me all you like but you leave her alone!” Oliver continued to shout, apparently quite fearless in regards to the danger that he was in. 

Cooper marched back to Oliver’s chair and swiftly punched Oliver in the jaw. 

“Oliver!!!!!!! Cooper don’t hurt him,” Felicity shouted, panic setting in. 

Cooper grabbed Oliver’s hair, yanking his head backwards. 

“Torture you huh? You’re willing to be tortured for her sake? Quite the devoted little moron you have here Felicity. And a billionaire too. How ever did you manage to land this one? I’ve seen the super models he dates and lets face it babe you’re only average. Although you were a firecracker in bed so is that how you’re holding onto him?”

Suddenly all hell broke loose. Oliver had somehow managed to escape from his cuffs and launched at Cooper kicking him squarely in the groin. Twice. Felicity’s years of training with John once again paid off as she instantly retrieved her tranquilizer gun from her cleavage and shot Cooper once in the neck and twice in the face before turning her gun to empty a bunch of cartridges at the goon who had been standing guard outside. The room was silent as the two bodies slumped to the floor, having received about three times the normal dosage of tranquilizers.

“Owwwwwwwww,” Oliver howled as he limply held up his hands in her direction. He was sitting sprawled on the ground, the fight having taken the wind out of him. His thumbs hurt like hell and he was trying to recover from how hot Felicity looked, kicking ass. Once he got his thumbs fixed he was filing those images away for a fantasy to enjoy another day. 

“Awww Oliver what happened,” she crooned sympathetically. “Does your face still hurt?” She reached over to gingerly touch his face where Cooper had punched him, a purple bruise was now starting to slowly form. “Poor baby he left a big bruise on your face,” she clucked, fussing over him.

“My thumbs! My thumbs,” Oliver wailed, enjoying the attention. Felicity stared down at his dislocated thumbs and shook her head exasperatedly. “Let me guess! John told you to dislocate your thumbs whenever you want to get out of handcuffs.” 

Oliver nodded sheepishly before adding, “He didn’t say it was going to hurt this much!”

“Next time I’m going to teach you how to hide a universal handcuff key in your sleeves. I suspect this was a joke on John’s part! And then you went ahead and listened to him!”

“How do I get this fixed? It hurts Felicity,” he pouted at her.

Felicity gave him an unreadable look before yanking him towards her. Suddenly she had deposited herself between his legs and was kissing him feverishly, her tongue slipping into his mouth as she made delightful little noises. He kissed her back with equal enthusiasm his tongue dueling with hers as she continued to let out a series of blissful little moans that were music to his ears. He was completely lost in the moment, only momentarily feeling a sharp pain in his thumbs that faded away quickly as she continued kissing him.

Suddenly without warning Felicity pulled away and started examining his jawline as if nothing had happened at all.

“Whaaaat happened,” Oliver whined at the loss of contact. 

“I put your thumbs back in their sockets,” Felicity smiled at him, looking amused. “It was going to hurt like hell so I found a way to distract you.”

He looked down at his thumbs and wiggled them. They didn’t hurt anymore. Meanwhile Felicity was still scrutinizing his jaw. 

“Does it hurt?” she asked, stroking the stubble gently with her fingers. “I don’t think it’s broken. You’ll just get a nasty bruise. I’ll ice it when we get back. Your poor beautiful jawline! Cooper is going to pay for that!”

“You’re not going to yell? At me?” Oliver asked tentatively. Felicity was being all sweet and coddling him but he couldn’t help thinking that he was going to be on the receiving end of her very loud voice for the stunt he pulled tonight.

She smiled fondly at him and ruffled his hair. “Maybe later! John’s just informed me he’s handled the situation on his end so let’s tie Cooper and his goon up as a present for SCPD and then let’s get out of here!”

“You won’t get any complaints from me! I’ve had enough excitement for one day!” Oliver nodded. His adrenaline was crashing and he suddenly felt like he needed a Felicity hug to get him through the night. 

***

Felicity and Oliver surveyed their work in satisfaction. Cooper and his goon were still out from the tranquilizers and tied up neatly. The evidence against them had also been compiled neatly in laptop for SCPD to find. It was a good days work, despite kidnappings and dislocated thumbs.

As they headed away from the building Felicity let out a little laugh which soon dissolved into a fit of giggles.

“What’s so funny?” Oliver asked, wondering if the stress of the day was getting to her too. She was more experienced than him but he knew an action packed night like this was not always the norm for her.

“I still can’t believe you kicked him in the groin! Twice! Were you wincing when you did it? Cuz I mean as a fellow male you must have felt that yourself while you were kicking him,” she asked, still giggling.

“Hell yeah I felt that but it was the only spot I could get a good aim at and my thumbs were too sore to punch him.”

Felicity stopped laughing and stood on her tippy toes to place a chaste kiss on his lips. “You did good Oliver! I’m proud of you! We are going to have a conversation about what staying safe means but for tonight I’m proud of you.” 

She linked her arm though his and they walked for a little while before Oliver couldn’t help asking hopefully, “Felicity, do I get a reward or at least something to help me overcome the trauma of tonight?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her and Felicity grinned back at him, shaking her head a little.

“What kind of girl do you take me for Mister? We haven’t even had our first proper date yet. Besides I have something waaaay better in store for you tonight.”

“What is it?” Oliver asked eagerly, beaming at her like an over excited puppy.

“John and I have decided it’s time we let you join us at Big Belly Burger!”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys!!!!
> 
> OMG It was a rough week in canon wasn't it?
> 
> *big group hug fellow shippers*
> 
> I was SO upset I didn't think I could finish the last part of my chapter but surprisingly, writing made everything feel better.
> 
> Hope you're not all too upset and hope you enjoy this chapter!

“You know I always thought buffets would be perfect for a first date and now I am seeing that my theory holds true,” Felicity mused, as she peeled all her prawns and lined them up neatly, next to the pile of crabmeat that she had carefully picked from the shells. “Would you like some?” she gestured at the enormous pile of neatly shelled seafood on her plate. 

Oliver stared at the pile of seafood and back at the girl of his dreams sitting opposite him. She was still the girl of his dreams, looking beautiful and dainty in a bright pink embroidered dress, but boy could she eat. He knew she hailed from Vegas and had an IQ of 170. This made him think that her skills lay in counting cards or something to that affect. He would have never guessed that one of Felicity’s prime skills from Vegas would be her ability to out eat anyone and possibly anything at a buffet. He made a mental note to take both Felicity and John to a buffet next time, to see if she could out eat John Diggle, who was a giant. 

Oliver had witnessed Felicity go three rounds of appetizers, entrees and desserts only to rinse and repeat after each round. Honestly he wasn’t sure if he was a bit horrified or in awe of her.

“Nono I want to hear about your theory on buffets,” Oliver smiled at her. He decided she was still adorable even when she was stuffing herself silly with food. Suddenly he was worried whether he had bought enough food all those times he provided take away in the lair. Felicity had eaten enough to feed four grown men tonight, perhaps the object of his affection had gone hungry all those times the three of them ate dinner together in the lair. 

She squeezed two wedges of lemon all over her seafood and proceeded to eat it daintily with her fork. “Well at a buffet, both parties need to get up and fetch their food. So if you were having a really awkward date you could avoid each other for a bit of a breather under the pretense of selecting new food. And if the date was going well you’d just go and get your food together. I used to sit and observe couples to gauge how their dates were going. Hmmm mind you if you were like married for a billion years I suppose you’d just sprint for the food because then it wouldn’t matter so much.”

“We’ve gone to get food together all night,” Oliver remarked thoughtfully, his face breaking out into a huge smile when he realized what that meant.

“We did indeed,” Felicity twinkled back. 

“So does this mean I get an invite over to your place tonight,” he asked cheekily, suddenly feeling bold. 

“Oh I don’t know,” Felicity waved him off with a sly smile on her face. “It’s only our first date after all. I’m more of a ten date kind of girl.”

“But we’ve spent almost every day together for months and months now,” Oliver protested with a whine. “We even beat up your criminal mastermind wannabe ex together. That’s a lifetime worth of bonding there.”

“Oh let’s just see how we go,” Felicity tucked into her last prawn. “Come with me, I want another serve of the lobster bisque.”

“But you’ve already had three bowls,” Oliver stared at her, not quite knowing what else to say. Normally all the girls he dated ordered salads and moved the leaves around on their plate. He knew Felicity wasn’t just any girl. Felicity was different. Felicity was special. His motives to get close to her aside, he was now genuinely worried that Felicity was going to burst or throw up from all the food she had consumed.

“Watch and learn my young Padawan,” she laughed as she stood up from her chair and grabbed his hand, pulling him with her.

***

“My tummy hurts,” Felicity wailed as she lay sprawled on the couch of her townhouse, her head resting on Oliver’s lap as she lamented her decision to eat anything and everything at the restaurant.

“I told you to stop eating by the third round but would you listen to me, noooooo. I wanted a romantic date, but you had to go and eat enough for five people,” Oliver mock scolded her, smiling despite the strange predicament he was in. He had hoped for a romantic date with Felicity, to pick up on the heady atmosphere of their first date, which had been so rudely interrupted by her evil ex. Instead he was in her house, giving her sips of ginger water for indigestion while gently rubbing her very taunt and slightly protruding tummy as she wailed at him. 

There was something very homely and affectionate about this that appealed to him. They were real. Felicity was real. She wasn’t just some beautiful girl with a crazy high IQ who kicked ass and moonlighted as a vigilante by night. She had actual flaws just like Oliver. She was greedy when it came to food. He didn’t know why but the thought of this was comforting to him. 

“You shouldn’t have taken me to a buffet,” Felicity wailed at him again, slapping his thigh gently in protest. “Didn’t you know that you can take a girl out of Vegas but you can’t take a Vegas buffet away from a girl?”

“Let it be duly noted that I will never take you out to a buffet again,” Oliver wagged a finger at her. “Gosh your tummy feels so hard.” He ran a finger curiously across her rock hard belly, in fascination, causing Felicity to yelp in horror, fearing that he was going to prod her in the tummy with his finger as a joke.

“Don’t you dare! I’ll never forgive you if you poke me while I’m in this state!”

“No one is poking anyone tonight Felicity,” Oliver sighed sadly. He bent down to kiss her forehead and gave her belly a gentle rub. “I’m going to put something on your TV for us to watch while you let all that food digest.”

***

It was about 2 am when Felicity woke up in darkness to find herself curled up on top of Oliver, both of them managing to squeeze themselves onto the couch. The last thing she remembered was that he had turned the lights off and put on a Harry Potter movie for them to watch while she remained on the couch, lamenting about her indigestion. Realising she had been putting all of her weight on him, and that he was much too big to be squashed into her modest couch, Felicity felt around in the dark to make sure he had enough back support and wasn’t falling off her couch. She continued to feel around blindly, checking to see if his legs were hanging over the sides. 

“Felicity all you have to do is ask, you don’t need to grope me in the dark while I’m asleep,” his sleepy but amused voice greeted her.

Felicity quickly retreated her hands from his ankle (or at least what she thought was his ankle) and made a move to scramble off the couch, only to have him pull her back on top of him.

“Stay,” he whispered huskily, his hands running down her spine, sending shivers down her back and creating butterflies in her tummy. 

“Stay and cuddle with me.”

She wanted to stay, she wanted to snuggle into his chest and see where this moment would take them. To stop thinking, stop planning and just go with the flow and give into her feelings for a handsome man who apparently thought the world of her.

But suddenly confronted by the enormity of the next step that they were possibly taking, she felt overwhelmed. If she were to be honest with herself she had enjoyed their friendship over the past few months, the banter, the teasing and the unconditional support they provided to each other. Oliver was a duffer and sometimes he was as thick as mince and as infuriating as hell but he was her friend. Hell he was fast becoming her best friend, lacking the brotherly overprotectiveness and disapproval that she sometimes found infuriating in John. She suddenly realized that she valued their friendship too much to take the next step with him and that she’d rather preserve their friendship than risk it by exploring whatever else existed between them.

“Oliver,” she sighed as she buried her nose into his chest.

“What is it Felicity?” he asked gently, moving his hands up so that his fingers were now stroking her curls.

“I can’t do this! Please don’t hate me.” She buried her face deeper into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Felicity I might be an ex play boy but I’m not understanding your signals.” Even in the dark she could hear the smile in his voice.

“I don’t want to move onto the next stage. I mean what if we move onto the next stage and we’re terrible together. What if we’re terrible in bed together? I know sex isn’t everything in a relationship but personally I think a certain amount of sexual chemistry must be had don’t you? What if we have like zero sexual chemistry and it’s all staid and weird and we’ll ruin what we have and we won’t ever be able to recover from it. I value you too much as a friend. I used to think you were a pest but I kinda like having you around now. You, John and I, we’re the three musketeers. So I vote that we just stay platonic friends forever and ever. Let’s chalk this all down to a weird crush between us and never bring it up again.” 

In making her impassioned speech about platonic friendship, Felicity had somehow excitedly moved around so that her leg was now between his thighs while her hands were holding his face.

“Felicity,” Oliver’s voice sounded very determined, forceful even. “Is this what platonic friends do?”

Still unable to see anything, she felt his nose touch hers softly as he moved in for a kiss, his tongue slipping into her mouth. She let out a content sigh and melted into the kiss, letting her hands roam wilding in his hair as she kissed him back with abandon.

It was Oliver who broke the kiss, pausing briefly to whisper, “Do you want to stop because we can just stop now and I’ll continue to chase you for however long it takes for you to get rid of your doubts?”

Felicity responded by capturing his lips in another searing kiss.

***

At first he thought it was a dream. The dreams were a common occurrence now, and he had long gotten over the disappointment that they were just dreams and nothing more. He’d wake up with his arms wrapped around Felicity, he’d smile, kiss her and then be jolted back into the real world in his own bed.

But this time it was different, for one Felicity was naked. Felicity had never been naked in his dreams before (ok so she has been plenty naked in his dreams, but the dream Felicity he woke up with always wore something pink). 

His hands were wrapped around her waist and her pert little bottom was pressed up against his man parts. Real naked Felicity was even more amazing that dream naked Felicity Oliver thought. How was it that she looked even better with a mop of messy curls and no makeup on?

Oliver couldn’t resist giving Felicity a squeeze, just to check that she was real. This earned him a cute little snort as Felicity wrinkled her nose briefly and continued to snore softly. He laughed quietly to himself and kissed the top of her head. This time she let out a huff and continued snoring softly away. 

So it looked like Felicity was not a morning person. Oliver glanced briefly at the panda alarm clock on her bedside table to discover that it was 11.30am. Obviously last night’s vigorous activities had worn them out. He decided he was suddenly feeling ravenous, for both Felicity and food but since Felicity was fast asleep, the decent thing would be to get up and organize some lunch so that she’d have something to eat as soon as she woke up. Maybe after filling her tummy she’d satisfy his other hunger.

Carefully so as not to wake her, he reluctantly extracted his arms from her body and got out of bed. He followed the trail of clothing they had shed along the way to Felicity’s bedroom, folding Felicity’s clothes up in a neat pile on the lounge after he put his own back on.

He contemplated popping out to buy some food for the both of them but Felicity could be waking up at any moment and he didn’t want her to wake up to an empty house, thinking he had left. He could leave a note but somehow he felt it was important for him to be next to her when she woke up. 

He knew this was huge step for her, for them, considering how many hang ups she had about love in general. He didn’t want her to feel, even if only for a second that he had left her alone. It was strange the way life sometimes worked out. He had spent so many years running from the various women in his life. Now that he was finally sure of his feelings and of himself, he had fallen in love with a woman who was so protective of her own heart, her immediate instinct was to shut down and give him an out. Well this time he wanted in forever and he was not going to give Felicity any reason to think otherwise.

Quietly he rummaged through her fridge to scrounge up any ingredients he could find, deciding that it would be easier for him to cook something to eat. Felicity kept a reasonably stocked fridge despite her appalling cooking skills. He smiled to himself, it was just like Felicity to keep persevering no matter how awful her efforts were. 

He pulled out some eggs, cheese, milk, mushrooms, tomatoes and an astonishing amount of bacon (apparently Felicity was not that strict about being Jewish judging by how much bacon she stocked up on) and proceeded to whip up a cheesy omelet with a side of fried bacon, sautéed mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. 

***

Felicity wiggled contently in bed as the aroma of frying bacon hit her. Slowly she opened her eyes and willed herself to wake up as the smell grew stronger and stronger. She heard a faint clatter of some cutlery and beamed at the empty space beside her bed. So Oliver hadn’t left after all like she feared. He had made himself at home and appeared to be pottering around her kitchen, making his way through her stash of bacon. She was about to drag herself out of bed to clean up and join him when Oliver burst through the door, tray in hand with a spread of food, a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice. Bless him, he had even managed to cut a few flowers from her front garden and stuck then into a tall water glass.

“Hi,” he smiled brightly at her. “I thought you’d be hungry again, judging by the amount of food you seem to be able to pack away so I made you brunch.”

He placed the tray next to her bedside table and looked at her endearingly for her approval. Resisting the urge to actually squeal “Awwwwww” at him, Felicity threw her naked self onto him, pressing their foreheads together. 

“Thank you for being the sweetest thing ever and for being here for me.”

“I’m always going to be here for you Felicity whether it’s bugging you at QC, waiting around for you in the lair or tagging along on your missions. I’m AWAYS going to be around if you let me.”

“I would kiss you but I need to brush my teeth first because I have a mortal fear of morning breath,” Felicity sighed as she extracted herself from him and headed towards the bathroom.

***

When Felicity stepped out of the bathroom, Oliver was sitting on her bed. She flashed him a smile and walked towards her wardrobe to find something to cover herself with when he moved over swiftly to block her.

“Felicity want to play a game?” he asked cheekily.

“Oliver what are you doing? Move I need some clothes.”

“Not for this game you don’t.” He pulled her onto the bed and settled her on his lap, before placing the breakfast tray in front of her. “Let’s play a game called Eat-Breakfast-Naked-on-Oliver’s Lap.” He proceeded to feed her a forkful of eggs while nibbling on her ear gently.

Felicity could feel her spine tingling as she tried in vain to concentrate on chewing her food.

“Oliver Queen what’s gotten into you?” Felicity tried to sound stern but her words came out sounding like a suppressed moan.

“You, Felicity Smoak. You’ve made me fall madly in love with you and now I don’t know what to do with myself except to chase you around forever and focus all my energy on you.”

Felicity hastily chewed on a piece of bacon and swallowed three mouthfuls of egg. If Oliver wanted to play, she would show him a thing or two. She placed the tray back on her bedside table and pushed a surprised Oliver roughly onto his back, yanking off his pants in one quick swoop. Before he could get a word in edgewise she was nimbly pulling off this shirt, ripping the buttons in the process. 

“Let’s amend the game to Eat-Breakfast-Naked-on-Naked-Oliver’s-Lap,” Felicity smiled at him coyly, looking perfectly angelic as she pushed him against her bedhead and settled onto his lap, wiggling a bit for good measure. She picked up her tray and began to resume munching onto her food calmly. Oliver had no idea what he signed up for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost at the end! So sad *sniffles*


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!
> 
> Here it is the last chapter!
> 
> I finished the story! Yay me!!!!!! haha I am always so thrilled when I finish something! It means I did not get whacked with writers block! 
> 
> This is one of my favourite chapters so I hope you like it too! Do let me know if you like it!
> 
> Also I got an email address especially for fanfic so feel free to contact me if you don't want to post a public comment!
> 
> Address is: mellowyellowdiamonds@yahoo.com
> 
> Shameless plug: If you enjoyed this story please do check out Sun and Moon also written by me! It is light, fluffy and humorous, very much like the style of this story.
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/7953028/chapters/18187777
> 
> Once again thank you for reading and for your lovely comments. It's been a joy to read them!

Robert Queen beamed at the two young people sitting in front of him, resisting the urge to jump for joy in front of them. After all he had a reputation to protect. He was Robert Queen, husband, father and dignified head of Queens Consolidated, a shrewd man and a business man. It most certainly would not do if anyone were to catch wind of his foray into match making.

Things could not have worked out any better. After twenty minutes of speaking to Felicity Smoak in her final interview round, Robert Queen had decided that he was no longer going to tolerate his son’s loose ways and knack for choosing incredibly unsuitable women. Within hours after arranging for Felicity to sign her employment forms at QC, Robert had sat down and thought hard as to how he could arrange for an accidental meeting between Oliver and this brilliant girl. 

He realized his son had a tendency to be shallow and fortunately Felicity was as pretty as she was brilliant (she had an IQ of 170 and was a Mensa member). Still there was a big hurdle he could not overcome. The head of Queens Consolidated simply could not invite a pretty young intern home to introduce to his son. The set up would be obvious. Robert had decided he was going to engage Thea’s help. His daughter loved this sort of thing and was constantly expressing disdain at her brother’s choice of girlfriends. 

Fortunately for Robert fate had stepped in and brought Felicity and Oliver together for him. He merely had to provide the means and situation for them to get to know each other better and that he did. In fact he had done it so brilliantly with his body guard scheme that here they were right in front of him, informing him of their relationship and of Felicity’s wish to cease her employment as Oliver’s body guard.

“So you see Mr. Queen, I can’t in good conscience work as Oliver’s body guard and seek payment when we are spending all our time together voluntarily anyway. I think it’s best if I quit and handover the role to Goran full time. But don’t you worry Mr. Queen, Oliver is still in good hands as he’s still plaguing me almost 24 hours a day so I’ll be guarding him for free.”

“Hey I take offence to that!” Oliver interjected looking miffed. “You make it sound like you have to be paid to spend time with me.”

“Sweetheart your father did pay me to spend time with you and now I’ve just quit so I can do it for free because we are dating. What are you quibbling about?” Felicity flashed him an amused grin.

“I just want need reassurance that you spend time with me because you want to, because you l….l…like me as much as I love you.”

“Poor sensitive baby, we will discuss this later I promise. Just not in front of your father!” Felicity gave Oliver’s hand a squeeze and patted him on the chest much to Robert’s amusement. He had never seen his son in love before and this lovesick puppy demeanor was novel to say the least.

“Felicity I can’t help but admit that I am beyond thrilled that you and Oliver are now dating. Are you sure you won’t accept at least some partial payment for your early work as his bodyguard? As I understand you weren’t particularly fond of Oliver back then and certainly did not view him as dating material so I think it’s only fair that we reimburse you for your work during that period because it was work.” Robert Queen was fighting hard the urge to fist pump. Felicity Smoak was everything he had hoped her to be. Intelligent, honest, loyal and very much in love with Oliver whether she realized herself it or not.

“No Mr. Queen, it just wouldn’t be right. I was fond of your son, always have been. Even when he was the bane of my existence. I’d feel terrible being paid because so much of our history was aided by this bodyguard agreement that you laid out for us. We just thought it was time to tell you so we could have a fresh start and move forward from here.” 

“Very well Felicity but can you do one thing for me especially?” Robert asked.

“Of course Mr. Queen, if I can I’ll try,” Felicity responded cheerfully.

“Call me Robert and come over for lunch and dinner every so often. Every second weekend if possible. We’d love for you to be part of the family young lady.”

“I’ll try,” Felicity smiled at him. 

Robert beamed back at the happy couple standing before him. Felicity’s smile was radiant like sunbeams and Oliver was looking content with his arms wrapped around her waist. He, Robert Queen was great at this match-making gig. Perhaps Thea would be his next project.

***

“What are we going to do now that you’ve foolishly given up all that money you could have used to furnish the lair?” Oliver protested as they left Robert’s office and headed towards the elevators. 

“We will find a way Oliver. John and I ran a pretty tight ship with just the two of us and now that we have you and you’ve been acing your training, that’s more muscle power than we’ve ever had. We’ll cope without the new gadgets,” Felicity reassured him as they stepped into the empty elevator.

“Hey dad looks really thrilled that I managed to land someone as brilliant as you. I think my trust fund is going to be unlocked. We’ll use that to buy more toys for the lair!” Oliver rubbed his hands together with glee.

“Oliver Queen as soon as you get your qualifications for that Business Administration course, you are pursuing your Verdant dreams. You are not blowing your trust fund on our nightly extra curricular activities.”

“But I waaaaant to,” Oliver could here his voice heading towards a whine. Really he must stop with that. It was such an unattractive trait and he was sure Felicity didn’t want to be with such a drip.

“Oliver how would it look if I turned down $500,000 only to get my grubby paws on your billion dollar trust fund? This is not happening Oliver,” Felicity sighed. “You wanted me to give us a chance and to put my faith in us so here I am doing that. Can we just be us and not let anything else get in the way? At least for now?”

Oliver gazed at the beautiful, golden haired angel before him for a few moments, wondering for the billionth time if she was real or just a figment of his imagination. He pulled her in for a deep kiss. She was definitely real and she was his. 

Felicity returned his kiss with equal passion before pulling away to slam down on the emergency button, stopping the elevator to a grinding halt.

“Felicity there are cameras in here,” Oliver whispered, looking slightly scandalized. He had done many things in his day but here she was jamming a lift at midday with cameras everywhere.

“Oh you underestimate me my love. While you were staring at me in shock for five seconds I’ve killed all the signals and cameras. No one can budge these lifts until I unlock them.” 

“Felicity Smoak you are remarkable,” Oliver twinkled at her, pulling her in for another kiss.

“Actually it’s not about that,” Felicity placed a hand on his chest to stop him. Seeing the puzzled look on his face, she lifted her other hand to stroke his cheek gently before grasping his hands and pulling them to her chest.

“I know it’s taken a while and although you’ve told me countless times that you love me, I’ve been unable to say it back until now. That’s why it was so important for us to see your dad today. Because you see, I wanted to say it but it was never the right time and then I felt like I was being paid to spend time with you which made me feel all icky so I had to wait until I quit the gig as your body guard. I want you to know that I have felt it for a while now and wanted to say it ages ago but I was a bit scared and so…” 

“Felicity,” Oliver placed a finger on her soft pink lips, running it slowly over her perfect pout, interrupting her rant. “Felicity honey what did you want to say to me?”

“I love you Oliver, I love you,” she threw her arms around his waist and buried her face into his chest.

“I love you too Felicity. You’re my everything.”

***

One year later

“Look at him the perky little gimp,” Oliver scowled addressing the brunette next to him as he glared fiercely at the dashing Ray Palmer who, only a few feet away was engrossed in deep conversation with Felicity. Oliver knew he hated Palmer the moment he laid eyes on him. Palmer had more PhDs than Oliver had failed colleges and Palmer spoke Felicity’s language. Every time they were in the same room together, Palmer and Felicity would launch into some sort of enthusiastic gibberish science speak. Palmer was the worse, worse than Barry. Barry was not rich and did not look like a Disney Prince. Oliver was pretty sure that Barry was not as smart as Palmer either. Not that Felicity cared about money and Oliver was sure that Felicity liked his looks plenty but still Palmer was a threat if there ever was one. 

Oliver of course unburdened all these thoughts to the calm brunette who happened to be standing beside him, informing her that he was sure it was part of Palmer’s nefarious plan to get Felicity to run off with him.

“It’s common knowledge that Ray is married and very much in love with his wife,” the brunette advised him with an amused look on her face.

“That’s what they all say until they meet Felicity. Bet that wife doesn’t hold a candle to Felicity! Felicity is smarter and prettier,” he told the brunette firmly. 

“Mr. Queen I understand that you are in love with Ms. Smoak over there. Perhaps it is a tad unreasonable to extrapolate that everyone else is also in love with Ms. Smoak, although I have heard that she’s brilliant and she is certainly very beautiful.” 

“He looks a bit too happy standing next to her don’t you think?”

“Perhaps he loves science and is enjoying the discussion?”

“That’s just the problem isn’t it? How many beautiful women can he find to discuss science with him all day?”

“Perhaps he doesn’t want to discuss science all day! Perhaps he wants to do other things. Does Ms. Smoak want to discuss science with you all day?” the brunette asked him calmly. She really was a very good sport, listening to him rant like this. 

“Felicity is so much more than her big brain. She’s funny, warm, caring and surprisingly mischievous,” Oliver responded with a dreamy look on his face. “I trust her completely you know, in case you’ve got the wrong impression. It’s him that I don’t trust. Still I must behave and just hate him behind his back. I’ve promised that it’s my turn to support Felicity this time after all the pep talks and encouragement she gave me last year when I opened Verdant.” He sighed suddenly looking a little sad as he continued.

“We, including my parents all wanted her to stay at QC but she was afraid people would accuse us of nepotism. So she took up this job with Palmer. She told me she needed space to grow away from the Queen Empire and carve out a career for herself, independent of us while devoting one hundred per cent to her private life with me. I agree with her but I just loathe Palmer so much. Doesn’t he look like he wants to run off with her?”

“Ms. Smoak sounds like she is a very wise and sensible woman and I think you have nothing to worry about Mr. Queen. I believe Ray is very devoted to his wife and very much in love,” the brunette assured him good-naturedly.

“I’d run off with Felicity,” Oliver muttered darkly. “It’s a good thing I met her when I was single or else I would have had to leave someone for her. And knowing her she wouldn’t approve so I would have had to chase her around. Possibly for years!” His eyes grew wide with horror at the thought of Felicity rebuffing his affections for years on end.

“Well it’s very fortunate then that you met Ms. Smoak at the right time. You seem very…enamored with her. But I assure you Mr. Queen there is no need to worry about Ray.”

“I suppose it doesn’t matter. I trust Felicity completely and I’m hoping she’ll come back to the family company one day when she becomes Felicity Queen,” Oliver responded dreamily. 

The brunette perked up, flashed him an intrigued look and asked. “Are you planning to propose soon Mr. Queen?”

“I’d propose right now in a heartbeat,” Oliver replied, looking slightly wistful. “But her adoptive-ish big brother says I am not to propose until she’s at least 26. He says she needs time to grow. He’s very big on Felicity growing and I wouldn’t dare cross him when it comes to Felicity. Plus I kinda agree with him. I need to give her time to find out who she is before we start the next chapter.”

“She’s a lucky woman to have you Mr. Queen,” the brunette smiled warmly at him. “You’re both lucky to have found each other. A love like that is rare in this world.” 

Oliver grinned at her words, feeling decidedly more upbeat and less irritable about Palmer. He straightened his posture and extended a hand to the brunette. 

“I’m sorry, I’ve been very rude, complaining to you about Palmer for the whole night without even asking for your name. At any rate I really appreciate the chat. Oliver Queen but you knew that already.”

The brunette took his hand and shook it briskly. “Anna Palmer,” she stated calmly with a slightly amused expression on her face. “I’m the poor wife you think Ray wants to leave.”

***

Four Years Later

“Don’t you have anyone else you can do this with Oliver?” John Diggle protested as he shuffled nervously outside of high end jewelry store in Opal City which true to it’s name, seemed to have an unending supply of high end jewelry stores. While Star City was known for it’s crime waves, it appeared that Opal city was a place for all the finer things in life. As he stood outside the store balking, Diggle decided that he hoped the criminals of Star City did not make their way up here. It would be easy pickings with every second store peddling ridiculously expensive wares.

“Besides myself you are the person who knows Felicity best. I only get to do this once John, I really need you to give it your all today and help me pick out the perfect ring for her,” Oliver shuffled nervously, psyching himself up.

“What about Anna or Thea or even Lyla for Christ’s sake? Surely one of her girlfriends would be more useful than me?”

“If Anna knows, Palmer will know and Palmer will blab within three seconds of speaking to Felicity. Thea is constantly in collusion with dad and she will tell dad the moment she hears the words engagement ring. Dad worships Felicity and I know he would propose on my behalf years ago if he could so I don’t want him getting worked up any further. That leaves only Lyla! No offence John, Lyla is badass but she’s such a dude I don’t trust her to pick out a perfect engagement ring for someone as girly as Felicity.”

“Are you saying I am more feminine than my wife,” John deadpanned, shooting Oliver a look that would have had him quaking in his boots during his early days. But Oliver was not that punk anymore. Oliver had spent countless hours practicing the Salmon ladder to impress Felicity and Oliver was no longer intimidated by the Diggle stare. 

“Oh don’t be petty,” he waved John off breezily. “You’re the one who wanted her to get an internship at QC, wanted her to have time to grow. Don’t you want her to have the perfect engagement ring as well? Stop complaining and let’s do this.”

“Oh I sure as hell regret my role in pushing her to apply for that internship now,” John sighed with the dramatic air of a long-suffering saint who had been dealing with nitwits (read Oliver) for too long.

“Less opinions about me, save them for the rings,” Oliver replied cheerfully, shoving his friend into the store.

***

Clarence prided himself in his excellent judgment and uncanny ability to read people. So naturally when he saw the handsome, well dressed couple walk into the store browsing the ring section he had tried to help to the best of his ability, partly because the younger one was ridiculously handsome and even looked a lot like Oliver Queen, Star City’s reformed playboy (Clarence sometimes read his sister’s gossip magazines during breakfast). 

What puzzled him was that instead of picking from the exclusive selection of men’s wedding rings his boutique stocked, the happy (actually he wasn’t entirely sure if they were happy, there seemed to be an awful lot of bickering) couple were hell-bent on examining every single feminine engagement ring available, shoving them onto their large pinky fingers before scrutinizing them.

Still, courses for horses, Clarence thought to himself. Who was he to judge? If these two gentlemen wanted a pretty pink or yellow diamond ring (there was a lot of argument between them with the taller gentleman wanting a pink diamond ring and the Oliver Queen lookalike insisting on a yellow while muttering something about sunshine and daffodils) to solidify their union Clarence was going to do his best to help them. 

“If you two gentlemen can’t agree on matching rings, perhaps may I suggest that you both pick a ring with the coloured stone that you each like and wear it on your wedding day with pride. After all it’s your union you can wear whatever you like,” Clarence offered helpfully.

“What?”

“You mean?”

“You think?”

“We’re not a couple,” they both responded in unison, staring at him with shocked expressions. 

“We’re trying to pick an engagement ring for a girl that we love,” Oliver Queen lookalike informed him hastily.

“Err you both love this girl? May I assume that this is an engagement ring from the both of you to her?” Clarence asked tentatively, wondering how he had read the situation so wrong. 

“NO NO NO,” the taller one shook his head violently. “I am the girl’s brother! I am helping this fool here pick out an engagement ring for her. He is the one that wants to marry her. I told you this was a bad idea,” he declared loudly before reaching out to slap Oliver Queen lookalike on the back of the head. 

“Hey!” Oliver Queen lookalike yelped glaring daggers at the taller man. 

Clarence decided enough was enough. It was time for him to jump in and take over. These two clowns were not going to agree on any sort of engagement ring if left to their own devices.

“Let me get all the facts. From my observation it seems that one of you thinks that the lady in question would love a pink diamond engagement ring because she is a lover of the colour pink I presume?”

“That’s right,” the taller man nodded gruffly.

“And you sir, think that your lady love should have a yellow diamond engagement ring because she reminds you of sunshine and daffodils?”

“Her smile is like sunbeams,” Oliver Queen lookalike responded dreamily while the taller man gave a rude snort.

“Well I think I may have just the perfect ring for you.” 

He vanished for five minutes to gain access to the shop vault and came back with an absolute beauty. The stone was a 2-carat; fancy intense yellow radiant cut diamond, which was surrounded by a halo of ten little pink diamond hearts made to look like a beautiful, sparkling yellow flower with pink petals. This shimmery, glittering flower made of diamonds was set on a split shank platinum ring, studded with mini white diamonds. The ring was made for Felicity. They had finally found Felicity’s engagement ring.

***

“Oliver why are we parked outside your parent’s mansion like two creepers and why did you take the van tonight?” Felicity queried with a puzzled look on her face.

“Relax Felicity. I’m taking care of it and you will get your explanation soon. Now I need you to go and sit in the back of the van,” Oliver responded mysteriously, getting out from his side of the van and sliding back door open.

“Seriously Oliver, all you need right now is that serial killer haircut you used to rock and I would be terrified of you if I wasn’t in love with you. What are you up to? Oooohhh…..” 

Before she could complete her sentence he had opened the passenger door, carried her out and deposited her on a picnic blanket, which he had laid out at the back. Felicity was about to open her mouth to fire off another question when he suddenly got down on one knee before her.

“Felicity Smoak, before I met you, I bumbled through life with no direction, no purpose other than to indulge as much as I could and do anything that felt good. But then one night you came along and you literally saved me. For the rest of my life I will never forget the moment you opened the van door and I first laid eyes on you. You were beautiful and you were my hero and I promised myself that I would find you again no matter what. As fate would have it I did find you and I got the privilege of loving you and being the man that you love. You are warm, compassionate, heroic, beautiful, brainy beyond comprehension and you are the love of my life. I need to be with you for the rest of my life. I need your love and to have you to love for the rest of my life. So Felicity Smoak will you marry me?” 

Felicity blinked away the tears that were welling up in her eyes and focused her gaze on Oliver who was kneeling before her, with a smitten look on his face, heart eyes out in full force. 

“Yes!!!!! Of course it’s a yes! I love you so much!” she declared somewhat hysterically before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him with abandon.


End file.
